updating a displayed widget

Hello all, I'm brand new to gtk. I've been playing with the samples and such, and have a small project to help me learn the process. What I can't figure out is the pragma for updating a displayed widget. I've modified the list.php for my own purposes. After displaying the widget I've added an extra button that adds to the $list (GtkList) widget. This doesn't update the display. I've tried, hiding and then showing. removing and then repacking. I've been skimming the api and tutorial doc's on gtk.org but can't seem to find anything about it. $new_item[] = &new GtkListItem('A new Item'); $list->append_items( $new_item ); That would seem to get the item into the list widget, but the displayed widget doesn't change. Keith