Given a status icon area of some 20 pixels tall in awesome WM (http://awesome.naquadah.org), any icons displayed by apps that use gtk-3  are going through a constant cycle of size changes.

This bug has initially manifested itself in nm-applet (see https://awesome.naquadah.org/bugs/index.php?do=details&task_id=810), however now I conclude it to lie in the plane of interaction between gtk+-3 and awesome WM.

Below are two python scripts that clearly show the problem. Apparently the problem appears only if the icon is larger than status icon area and needs downscaling. Of the two scripts using gtk, and the attached script using PyQt4, only gtk3 version shows the problem.

I have also tested this with tint2 (http://code.google.com/p/tint2/) using a similar small icon area. The problem does not show up.

It is hard for me to tell whether the fault lies in gtk3 or in awesome. One might argue that since awesome is the only implementation that shows the fault, it is to blame. However, on the flip side of the coin, gtk3 is also the only toolkit (out of gtk2, gt3 and qt4) that causes the problem.

If you have strong reasons to believe that awesome is to blame, I would expect you to open a bug against awesome.

Versions (all are the latest available in gentoo at the moment)
gtk3: 3.8.4
awesome: 3.5.1
xorg-server: 1.14.3

gtk3-status-icon:
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#!/usr/bin/python
        
from gi.repository import Gtk 
        
si = Gtk.StatusIcon.new_from_file("/usr/share/icons/gnome/32x32/actions/stock_search.png")
     
Gtk.main()

gtk2-status-icon:
-----------------

#!/usr/bin/python
 
import gtk
 
si = gtk.StatusIcon()
si.set_from_file("/usr/share/icons/gnome/32x32/actions/stock_search.png")
 
gtk.main()