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GTK+

GTK+

GTK (formerly GTK+[4], GIMP Toolkit) is a free and open-source cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs).[5] It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both free and proprietary software to use it. Along with Qt, it is one of the most popular toolkits for the Wayland and X11 windowing systems.[6]

GTKGtk#
GTK logo.svg
Original author(s)Spencer Kimball, Peter Mattis
Developer(s)The GNOME Project, eXperimental Computing Facility (XCF)
Initial releaseApril 14, 1998 (1998-04-14)
Stable release
3.24.11 / September 4, 2019 (2019-09-04)[1]
Preview release
3.96.0 / May 7, 2019 (2019-05-07)[2]
Repository
  • gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk.git [118]
Written inC, CSS[3]
Operating systemLinux, Unix-like, macOS, Windows
TypeWidget toolkit
LicenseLGPLv2.1+
Websitegtk.org [119]
Gtk Sharp Logo.png
Developer(s)Xamarin
Initial releaseMarch 12, 2004 (2004-03-12)
Stable release
2.12.41[17] / September 22, 2016 (2016-09-22)
Preview release
2.99.3[18] / June 6, 2014 (2014-06-06)
Repository
  • gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk.git [124]
Written inC#, XML, Perl, C
Operating systemWindows, macOS, Linux
TypeWidget toolkit
LicenseGNU Lesser General Public License
Websitemono-project.com/GtkSharp [125]

Software architecture

Simplified software architecture of GTK. Pango, GDK, ATK, GIO, Cairo and GLib

Simplified software architecture of GTK. Pango, GDK, ATK, GIO, Cairo and GLib

GDK contains back-ends to X11, Wayland, Broadway (HTTP), Quartz, and GDI and relies on Cairo for the rendering. Its new SceneGraph is work-in-progress.

GDK contains back-ends to X11, Wayland, Broadway (HTTP), Quartz, and GDI and relies on Cairo for the rendering. Its new SceneGraph is work-in-progress.

The GTK library contains a set of graphical control elements (widgets), version 3.22.16 contains 186 active and 36 deprecated widgets.[7] GTK is an object-oriented widget toolkit written in the programming language C; it uses GObject, that is the GLib object system, for the object orientation. While GTK is mainly for windowing systems based on X11 and Wayland, it works on other platforms, including Microsoft Windows (interfaced with the Windows API), and macOS (interfaced with Quartz). There is also an HTML5 back-end named Broadway[8][9].

GTK can be configured to change the look of the widgets drawn; this is done using different display engines. Several display engines exist which try to emulate the look of the native widgets on the platform in use.

Starting with version 2.8, released in 2005, GTK began the transition to using Cairo to render most of its graphical control elements widgets.[10] Since GTK version 3.0, all the rendering is done using Cairo.

On 2018-Jan-26 at DevConf.cz Matthias Clasen gave an overview of the current state of GTK 4 development, including a high-level explanation of how rendering and input worked in GTK 3, what changes are being made in GTK 4 (>3.90), and why.[11] In February it was announced that GTK 4 will drop the “+” from the project's name.[4]

GIMP Drawing Kit (GDK)

GDK acts as a wrapper around the low-level functions provided by the underlying windowing and graphics systems.

GDK is found in the /gdk [120] directory.

GTK Scene Graph Kit (GSK)

GSK is the rendering and scene graph API for GTK. GSK lies between the graphical control elements (widgets) and the rendering. GSK was finally merged into GTK+ version 3.90 released March 2017.

GSK is found in the /gsk [121] directory.

GtkInspector

GtkInspector was introduced with version 3.14.[12][13] GtkInspector can only be invoked after installing the development package libgtk-3-dev [122] /gtk+-devel [123] .

GUI designers

There are several GUI designers for GTK. The following projects are active as of July 2011:

  • Glade, supports GtkBuilder, which is a GTK built-in GUI description format.

  • Gazpacho, GUI builder for the GTK toolkit written in Python[14]

  • Crow Designer, relies on its own GuiXml format and GuiLoader library.[15]

  • Stetic, part of MonoDevelop, oriented toward Gtk#.

GtkBuilder

GtkBuilder allows user interfaces to be designed without writing code. The interface is described in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file, which is then loaded at runtime and the objects created automatically. The Glade Interface Designer allows creation of the user interface in a what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) manner. The description of the user interface is independent from the programming language being used.

Language bindings

A library written in one programming language may be used in another language if bindings are written; GTK has a range of bindings for various languages.[16]

Gtk#

Gtk# is a set of .NET Framework bindings for the GTK graphical user interface (GUI) toolkit and assorted GNOME libraries. The library facilitates building graphical GNOME applications using Mono or any other compliant Common Language Runtime (CLR). Gtk# is an event-driven system like any other modern windowing library where every widget allows associating handler methods, which get called when certain events occur.

Applications built using Gtk# will run on many platforms including Linux, Windows and macOS. The Mono packages for Windows include GTK, Gtk# and a native theme to make applications look like native Windows applications. Starting with Mono 1.9, running Gtk# applications on macOS no longer requires running an X11 server.[19]

Glade Interface Designer can be used with the Glade# bindings to easily design GUI applications. A GUI designer named Stetic is integrated with the MonoDevelop integrated development environment (IDE).

In addition to support the standard GTK/GNOME stack of development tools, the gtk-dotnet.dll assembly provides a bridge to consume functionality available on the .NET stack. At this point this includes the functionality to use System.Drawing to draw on a widget.

GtkSourceView

For syntax highlighting there is GtkSourceView, "source code editing widget".

GtkSourceView is maintained separately from GTK as a library: gtksourceview [126] . There are plans to rename to gsv.

GtkSpell

GtkSpell is a distinct library separate to GTK. GtkSpell depends on GTK and Enchant. Enchant is a wrapper for ispell, hunspell, etc, the actual spell checker engine/software. GtkSpell uses GTK's GtkTextView widget, to highlight misspelled words and offer replacement.

  • gtkspell.sourceforge.net [127]

Development

GTK is mainly developed by The GNOME Project, which also develops the GNOME Development Platform and the GNOME Desktop Environment.[20]

GTK development is loosely managed. Discussion chiefly occurs on several public mailing lists.[21] GNOME developers and users gather at an annual GNOME Users And Developers European Conference GUADEC meeting to discuss GNOME's current state and future direction.[22] GNOME incorporates standards and programs from freedesktop.org to better interoperate with other desktops.

GTK is mainly written in C.[23] Many language bindings are available.

On September 1, 2016 a post on the GTK development blog denoted, among other things, the future numbering scheme of GTK.[24] GTK version 3.22 from autumn 2016 shall be the last 3.x release. After that all resources will move to the GTK 4 development series with the version names 3.90, 3.92, etc. Even as the 4.x series enters development, notable applications still use GTK 2.x and have not been ported to 3.22. Regarding the future of legacy software using GTK+, there is no collective project to port GTK 2.x software to 3.22.

Build automation

In former times GTK (and GNOME, GLib, etc.) utilized the GNU Build System (named Autotools) as the build automation system of choice.

Since 14 Aug 2017, the master branch of GTK builds with Meson, and the Autotools build system files have been dropped.[25]

Criticism

The most common criticism of GTK is the lack of backward-compatibility in major updates, most notably in the application programming interface (API)[26] and theming.[27]

The compatibility breaks between minor releases during the GTK 3.x development cycle was explained by Benjamin Otte as due to strong pressures to innovate, such as providing the features modern users expect and supporting the increasingly influential Wayland display server protocol. With the release of GTK 4, the pressure from the need to innovate will have been released and the balance between stability and innovation will tip toward stability.[28] Similarly, recent changes to theming are specifically intended to improve and stabilise that part of the API, meaning some investment now should be rewarded later.

  • Dirk Hohndel, codeveloper of Subsurface and member of Intel's Open-Source Technology Center, criticized the GTK developers for being abrasive and ignoring most community requests.[29]

  • Hong Jen Yee, developer of LXDE (the GTK version of which will be dropped and all efforts focused on the Qt port[30]), expressed disdain for version 3 of the GTK toolkit's radical API changes and increased memory usage, and ported PCMan File Manager (PCManFM) to Qt. PCManFM is being developed with a GTK and with a Qt backend at the same time.[31]

  • The Audacious music player moved to Qt in version 3.6.[32] The reasons stated by the developers for this include a transition to client-side window decorations, which they claim cause the application to look "GNOME-y and out of place."[33]

  • Wireshark has switched to Qt due to not having a good experience with GTK's cross-platform support.[34]

Use

Applications

Some notable applications that use or once used GTK as a widget toolkit include:

  • GNOME Core Applications – as part of GNOME desktop environment, developed in concert with GTK itself.

  • AbiWord – Word processor

  • Anjuta – Integrated development environment (IDE)

  • Ardour – Digital audio workstation

  • Chromium – Web browser (Until version 34, replaced by Aurora in version 35+)

  • Ekiga (formerly GnomeMeeting) – VoIP and video conferencing application

  • GNU Emacs can use GTK when running on X.

  • Evolution – Personal information manager

  • gconfig – Linux kernel source configuration utility.

  • Geany – a lightweight cross-platform IDE and GTK text editor based on Scintilla.

  • GIMP – Raster graphics editor

  • Gnumeric – Spreadsheet application

  • Gramps – Genealogy software

  • Inkscape – Vector graphics editor for SVG

  • LiVES – Video editor

  • Midori – Minimalistic web browser using GTKWebKit as rendering engine and GTK as widget toolkit

  • Pidgin – Instant messenger application

Desktop environments

Several desktop environments utilize GTK as the widget toolkit.

Current

Phosh

Phosh

  • GNOME, based on GTK, meaning that programs native to GNOME use GTK

  • Budgie, built from scratch for the SolusOS successor, Solus Operating System

  • Cinnamon, a fork of GNOME 3 and uses GTK version 3

  • MATE, a fork of GNOME 2, which was initially built using GTK 2, but as of version 1.18, has been updated to use only GTK 3.

  • Xfce, currently based on GTK 3, after migration from GTK 2. xfce4-14 [128]

  • Pantheon uses GTK 3 exclusively, being developed by elementary OS

  • Sugar, a desktop environment for youth primary education, which uses GTK, especially PyGTK

  • KDE, though based on Qt, has integration with GTK written programs and themes since version 4.2

  • Phosh, a mobile UI designed for PureOS

Inactive

  • Unity, the former default desktop environment of Ubuntu

  • LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) is based on GTK 2

  • Access Linux Platform (successor of the Palm OS PDA platform)

  • Consort, the GNOME 3.4 Fallback Mode – fork from SolusOS

  • GPE, the GPE Palmtop Environment

  • ROX Desktop, a lightweight desktop, with features from the GUI of RISC OS

Miscellaneous

GTK programs can be run on desktop environments based on X11 and Wayland, or window managers even those not made with GTK, provided the needed libraries are installed; this includes macOS if X11.app is installed. GTK can be also run on Microsoft Windows, where it is used by some popular cross-platform applications like Pidgin and GIMP. wxWidgets, a cross-platform GUI tool-kit, uses GTK on Linux.[35] Other ports include DirectFB (used by the Debian installer, for example) and ncurses.[36]

Window managers

The following window managers use GTK:

  • Aewm

  • AfterStep

  • Amaterus

  • Consortium

  • IceWM

  • Marco

  • Metacity

  • Muffin

  • Mutter

  • Sawfish

  • Wmg

  • Xfwm

Example

Documentation is available here:

  • developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/ [129]

The following code presents a graphical GTK hello-world program in the C programming language. This program has a window with the title "Hello, world!" and a label with similar text.

Needs installing the libraries first in debian or derivatives:

$ sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-dev

Using pkg-config in a Unix shell, this code can be compiled with the following command:

$ cc -Wall pkg-config --cflags gtk+-3.0 -o helloworld helloworld.c pkg-config --libs gtk+-3.0

Invoke the program

$ ./helloworld

History

Linux/Unix

GTK was originally designed and used in the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) as a replacement of the Motif toolkit; at some point Peter Mattis became disenchanted with Motif and began to write his own GUI toolkit named the GIMP toolkit and had successfully replaced Motif by the 0.60 release of GIMP.[37] Finally GTK was re-written to be object-oriented and was renamed GTK+.[38] This was first used in the 0.99 release of GIMP. GTK was subsequently adopted for maintenance by the GNOME Foundation, which uses it in the GNOME desktop environment.

The GTK 2.0.0 release series introduced new features which include improved text rendering using Pango, a new theme engine, improved accessibility using the Accessibility Toolkit, transition to Unicode using UTF-8 strings, and a more flexible API. Starting with version 2.8, GTK 2 depends on the Cairo graphics library for rendering vector graphics.

GTK version 3.0.0 included revised input device handling, support for themes written with CSS-like syntax, and the ability to receive information about other opened GTK applications.

The '+' was dropped returning to simply 'GTK' in February 2019 during a Hackathon[39]

macOS

With Quartz-Backend[40] GTK is available in macOS.[41]

Windows

  • After GTK 2.24.10 and 3.6.4 Development of Windows with Installer was closed by Gnome. Installation of MSYS2 on Windows is a good way to use actual GTK.[42]

  • GTK 2.24.10 and 3.6.4 is available in Internet, but very buggy and limited against actual versions.[43][44]

  • A Version for Windows 64-bit is prepared by Tom Schoonjans with 2.24.32 (actual like Linux) and 3.22.30 (actual like Linux) available.[45]

  • Windows 10's Fall Creators Update includes Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). With Linux distributions like Ubuntu or Debian available from the Windows Store and an X server like Xming or VcXsvr, thousands of programs like GTK 2 or 3 can run with X or terminal support.

OpenVMS

HP stated that their goal was to merge the needed OpenVMS changes into the GTK Version 1.3 development stream[46], however this never materialised. The latest version of GTK for OpenVMS is version 1.2.10.[47]

4.x

One of the cardinal novelties implemented during the GTK 4 development cycle (i.e. GTK 3.92, etc.) has been the delegation of functionality to ancillary objects instead of encoding it into the base classes provided by GTK.

  • the event handling from signal handlers described by GtkWidget is delegated to event controllers

  • the rendering is delegated to GtkSnapshot objects

  • the layout mechanism from GtkWidget is delegated to GtkLayoutManager

In 2018-Jan-26 at DevConf.cz Matthias Clasen gave an overview of the then current state of GTK 4 development, including a high-level explanation of how rendering and input worked in GTK 3, what changes were being made to GTK 4, and the reasons for those changes. Examples of things that have become possible with GTK 4 were given as well.[48]

Releases

Release history
Release seriesInitial releaseMajor enhancementsLatest minor version
Old version, no longer supported:1.01998-04-13[49]First stable version1.0.6 [130]
Old version, no longer supported:1.21999-02-25[50]New widgets (GtkFontSelector, GtkPacker, GtkItemFactory, GtkCTree, GtkInvisible, GtkCalendar, GtkLayout, GtkPlug, GtkSocket)1.2.10 [131]
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still supported
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release
GTK+ 2
Old version, no longer supported:2.02002-03-11[51]GObject, overall support for UTF-82.0.9 [132]
Old version, no longer supported:2.22002-12-22[52]Multihead support2.2.4 [133]
Old version, no longer supported:2.42004-03-16[53]New widgets (GtkFileChooser, GtkComboBox, GtkComboBoxEntry, GtkExpander, GtkFontButton, GtkColorButton)2.4.14 [134]
Old version, no longer supported:2.62004-12-16[54]New widgets (GtkIconView, GtkAboutDialog, GtkCellView).
The last to support Windows 98/Me
2.6.10 [135]
Old version, no longer supported:2.82005-08-13[55]Most widgets are rendered by Cairo.2.8.20 [136]
Old version, no longer supported:2.102006-07-03[56]New widgets (GtkStatusIcon, GtkAssistant, GtkLinkButton,
GtkRecentChooser) and print support (GtkPrintOperation)
2.10.14 [137]
Old version, no longer supported:2.122007-09-14[57]GtkBuilder2.12.12 [138]
Old version, no longer supported:2.142008-09-04[58]JPEG 2000 load support2.14.7 [139]
Old version, no longer supported:2.162009-03-13[59]New widget (GtkOrientable), Caps Lock warning in password entry.
Improvements on GtkScale, GtkStatusIcon, GtkFileChooser.
2.16.6 [140]
Old version, no longer supported:2.182009-09-23[60]New widget (GtkInfoBar). Improvement on file chooser, printing.
To remove much of the necessary IPC between the X11 application and the X11 server, GDK is rewritten (mainly by Alexander Larsson) to use "client-side windows", i.e., the GdkWindow, which every widget must have, belongs now to the client.
2.18.9 [141]
Old version, no longer supported:2.202010-03-23[61]New widgets (GtkSpinner, GtkToolPalette, GtkOffscreenWindow). Improvement on file chooser,
keyboard handling, GDK. Introspection data is now included in GTK.
2.20.1 [142]
Old version, no longer supported:2.222010-09-23[62]GdkPixbuf moved to separate module, most GDK drawing are based on Cairo,
many internal data are now private and can be sealed in preparation to GTK 3.
2.22.1 [143]
Older version, yet still supported:2.242011-01-30[63]New widget (GtkComboBoxText), the CUPS print backend can send print jobs as PDF,
GtkBuilder has gained support for text tags and menu toolbuttons and many introspection annotation fixes were added.
migrating from GTK+ 2.x to GTK+ 3 [144]
2.24.32 [145]
(2018-01-08)
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still supported
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release
GTK+ 3
Old version, no longer supported:3.02011-02-10[64]Development and design of the GTK 3 release of the toolkit started in February 2009 during the GTK Theming Hackfest held in Dublin.[65] The first draft of the development roadmap was released on 9 April 2009.[66]
completed mostly Project Ridley, the attempt to consolidate several libraries that were external to GTK+, includinglibgnome,libgnomeui,libgnomeprint22,libgnomeprintui22,libglade,libgnomecanvas,libegg,libeel,gtkglext, andlibsexy.[67]
all the rendering is done using Cairo;
GDK became more X11 agnostic,
XInput2, theme API is based on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), worsening the achievable performance for 60 Hz frame rates
3.0.12 [146]
Old version, no longer supported:3.22011-09-25[68]New widgets (GtkLockButton, GtkOverlay), New Font Chooser dialog;
new experimental backends (Wayland, HTML5 (named "Broadway"));
3.2.4 [147]
Old version, no longer supported:3.42012-03-26[69]Menu support in GtkApplication, a new color chooser, added support for touch devices, added support for smooth scrolling,
GtkScrolledWindow will do kinetic scrolling with touch devices, macOS support is improved.
This is the first version of GTK 3 that works well on Windows.
The Wayland backend is updated to the current Wayland version
Spin buttons have received a new look.
Accessibility: the treeview accessible support is rewritten
More complete CSS Theming support
3.4.4 [148]
Old version, no longer supported:3.62012-09-24[70]GtkSearchEntry, GtkMenuButton, GtkLevelBar. Vertical spin buttons.
CSS animations, blur shadows.
Support for cross-fading and transitions in themes.
3.6.5 [149]
Old version, no longer supported:3.82013-03-25[71]Wayland 1.0 stable support, support for the broadwayd server, improved theming, better geometry management,
touch improvements, support with the window manager for the frame synchronization protocol;
GdkFrameClock added[72]
3.8.9 [150]
Old version, no longer supported:3.102013-09-23[73]New widgets (GtkHeaderBar, GtkPlacesSidebar, GtkStack, GtkStackSwitcher, GtkRevealer, GtkSearchBar, GtkListBox).
Support for Wayland 1.2 (maximization, animated cursors, multiple monitors, settings, custom surfaces and frame synchronization)
Added: client-side decorations, scaled output support on high-dpi screens, fine-adjustment mode for scrolling.
Removed: support for the Motif DND protocol, support for multiple screens per display, gdk_window_get_display, gtk_widget_push_composite_child,
Tear-off menu-items, plus many GTK+ settings.
The modern GTK drawing model [151]
3.10.9 [152]
Old version, no longer supported:3.122014-03-25[74]GTK 3.12 introduced client-side decorations,[75] support for Wayland 1.5; new widgets: (GtkPopover, an alternative to menus and dialogs)3.12.2 [153]
Old version, no longer supported:3.142014-09-22[76]GtkInspector (a copy of gtkparasite) introduced;[77][78] improved support for gestures/multi-touch merged[79][80]
Deprecate: GtkMisc, GtkAlignment, GtkArrow, GdkColor, Style regions, support for .icon files, gdk_window_flush, drawing outside of begin/end paint.[81] Most widgets converted to use gestures internally, Wayland supports GNOME Shell classic modus.[82]
3.14.15 [154]
Old version, no longer supported:3.162015-03-22[83]GDK supports rendering windows using OpenGL for X11 and Wayland using libepoxy, new widgets (GtkGLArea, GtkStackSidebar, GtkModelButton, GtkPopoverMenu), scrolling overhauled (Scrollbar hidden by default[84]), experimental Mir backend[85]3.16.7 [155]
Old version, no longer supported:3.182015-09-23[86]Add CSS node infrastructure, More filechooser design refresh and Better filechooser search, Dropped Windows XP support, Model support for list and flow box, Kinetic touchpad scrolling, Touchpad gestures (Wayland), gtk-builder-tool utility, Output-only windows3.18.9 [156]
Old version, no longer supported:3.202016-03-21[87]Further Integration of CSS nodes,[88] move drag and drop down to GDK, New widgets: GtkShortcutsWindow [157] : shows keyboard shortcuts and gestures of an application3.20.10 [158]
Older version, yet still supported:3.222016-09-21[89]last 3.x released[24]
GTK+ Wayland tablet support is merged;[90] Support for graphics tablets is considered feature complete[91]
GTK 3.22 shall be as rock-stable (and hence "boring") as GTK 2[28][92][93]
for 3+ years
3.22.29 [159]
Current stable version:**3.24**2018-09-03[94]3.22 was supposed to be the very last version of GTK 3 series. 3.24 was mainly released to **ease migrating from GTK+ 3.x to GTK+ 4 [160] **!
Dependency bumps: Require libepoxy 1.4, and pango 1.41
New font chooser features: Allow setting OpenType font features, Show examples for OpenType font features, Allow selecting OpenType font variations, Support levels of details for selection
New Emoji features: Support a completion popup for Emoji, Drop Ctrl-Shift-e shortcut
Other new apis: gdk_window_move_to_rect
Wayland: Use anonymous shared memory on FreeBSD
Backported event controllers from GTK 4: GtkEventControllerScroll, GtkEventControllerMotion, GtkEventControllerKey, GtkGestureStylus
Deprecate a few APIs that are gone in GTK 4: focus chains in GtkContainer and stepper sensitivity in GtkRange
3.23.0 [161]
3.23.1 [162]
3.23.2 [163]
3.23.3 [164]
3.24.0 [165]
…3.24.5 [166]
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still supported
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release
GTK 4 development series
Old version, no longer supported:3.902017-03-31[95]merge (GTK+ Scene Graph Kit (GSK))[96]
remove any API marked as deprecated: before (2016-09-22) [167] vs. after [168]
heavy development, break API&ABI.[92][93] A new Vulkan-renderer augments the old Cairo-renderer[97]
3.89.1 [169]
3.89.2 [170]
3.89.4 [171]
3.89.5 [172]
3.90 [173]
Old version, no longer supported:3.922017-10-18[98][99]As GNOME 3.26 was released already on September, 13th. [100] it is not based on GTK 3.92! Please browse the git-history to determine what hindered GTK to release early enough for the latest GNOME to be based on it: https://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/ [174]
GNU autotools was replaced with Meson;
3.91.0 [175]
3.91.1 [176]
3.91.2 [177]
3.92.1 [178]
Old version, no longer supported:3.942018-06-26[101]3.93: GdkScreen, GdkVisual removed, GdkDeviceManager replaced by GdkSeat, Clipboard handling is moved from GTK to GDK, GdkEvent is converted to an opaque GObject, The GL renderer in GSK is substantially completed, and is now on par with the Vulkan renderer, The use of GdkPixbuf in APIs is reduced, and the GskTexture object is moved to GDK as GdkTexture, to take its place, The Wayland backend now implements the KDE server-side decoration protocol, Broadway is ported to GSK, …
GdkWindow is renamed to GdkSurface
new powerful abstraction for drawable content: GdkPaintable
There is support for displaying media, with: GtkVideo, GtkMediaFile, GtkMediaStream and GtkMediaControls
3.93 [179]
3.94.0 [180]
Latest preview version of a future release:3.962019-05-07[2]The gtk4-builder-tool 'simplify' command has gained a --3to4 option to convert GTK3 ui files to GTK4.
GtkWidget can now use a GtkLayoutManager for size allocation. Layout managers can optionally use layout children holding layout properties. GtkBinLayout, GtkBoxLayout, GtkGridLayout, GtkFixedLayout and GtkCustomLayout are currently available, more layout manager implementations will appear in the future.
Focus handling has been rewritten, and focus-change event generation has been unified with crossing events.
Events have been simplified and are just used for input
  • expose events have been replaced by a GdkSurface::render signal
  • configure events have been replaced by a GdkSurface::size-changed signal
  • map events have been replaced by a GdkSurface::mapped property
  • gdk_event_handler_set has been replaced by a GdkSurface::event signal
  • key events no longer contain a string
  • events on unmapped widgets are ignored
Future release:4.02020 autumn[102]remove any API marked as deprecated, i.e. at least everything in the deprecated [181] directory
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still supported
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release

The GNOME team releases new versions on a regular basis.[96]

See also

  • Client-Side Decoration

  • List of widget toolkits

  • GDK – the GIMP Drawing Kit lies between the xlib and the GTK library, handling basic rendering such as drawing primitives, raster graphics (bitmaps), cursors, fonts, as well as window events and drag-and-drop functionality

  • gtkmm – C++ bindings for GTK

  • Qt - cross platform framework and toolkit

  • Xojo - cross-platform development tool and framework

  • Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL) – widget toolkit written for the Enlightenment window manager

  • FLTK – A light, cross-platform, non-native widget toolkit

  • FOX toolkit – A fast, open source, cross-platform widget toolkit

  • IUP – a multi-platform toolkit for building native graphical user interfaces

  • Ultimate++

  • Visual Component Library (VCL)

References

[1]
Citation Linkmail.gnome.orgClasen, Mathias (4 September 2019). "gtk+ 3.24.11". GNOME Mail Services (Mailing list). Retrieved 15 September 2019.
Sep 30, 2019, 7:47 AM
[2]
Citation Linkmail.gnome.orgClasen, Mathias (7 May 2019). "gtk 3.96". GNOME Mail Services (Mailing list). Retrieved 28 May 2019.
Sep 30, 2019, 7:47 AM
[3]
Citation Linkwww.openhub.netThe GTK+ Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page
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