4 This is GTK+ version @GTK_VERSION@. GTK+ is a multi-platform toolkit for
5 creating graphical user interfaces. Offering a complete set of widgets,
6 GTK+ is suitable for projects ranging from small one-off projects to
7 complete application suites.
9 GTK+ is free software and part of the GNU Project. However, the
10 licensing terms for GTK+, the GNU LGPL, allow it to be used by all
11 developers, including those developing proprietary software, without any
12 license fees or royalties.
14 The official ftp site is:
15 ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk
17 The official web site is:
20 Information about mailing lists can be found at
21 http://www.gtk.org/mailinglists.html
27 See the file 'INSTALL'
30 Release notes for 2.14
31 ======================
33 * gtkitemfactory.h is now completely deprecated.
34 As gtkactiongroup.h and gtkstock.h no longer include the gtkitemfactory.h
35 header, this might break application using gtk_item_factory_* symbols
36 without including gtkitemfactory.h - even though this behaviour has never
37 been supported in the first place.
39 * The GtkFileSystem semi-private interface has been removed.
40 The GTK+ filechooser implementation now uses GIO directly, which has
41 rendered external filesystem implementations unnecessary. Consequently,
42 the GtkFileSystem interface is no longer available, nor the filechooser
43 will load any GtkFileSystem implementation.
45 * GtkComboBox now renders the popdown button insensitive when
46 the model is empty. Applications which want to populate the list
47 only before displaying it can set gtk_combo_box_set_button_sensitivity
48 to GTK_SENSITIVITY_ON, so that the button is always sensitive or
49 GTK_SENSITIVITY_OFF to make it insensitive respectively.
51 Release notes for 2.12
52 ======================
54 * gtk_about_dialog_get/set_name() were deprecated in favour of
55 gtk_about_dialog_get/set_program_name(), the GtkAboutDialog now uses the
56 "program-name" property instead of the conflicting "name" property.
58 * The gdk-pixbuf tiff loader now requires libtiff 3.6.0 or later.
60 * Support for Windows 9x/ME has officially been removed. It hasn't worked
63 * The GtkTextBufferTargetInfo enumeration values have been changed from
64 G_MAXUINT-0, G_MAXUINT-1, G_MAXUINT-2, etc, to -1, -2, -3 to stay within
67 * A change in the handling of _NET_WM_USER_TIME properties on toplevel
68 windows can cause deadlock problems with window managers that are using
69 GDK for drawing decorations. In particular, metacity <= 2.18.0 is affected
70 by this. The problem has been fixed in metacity 2.18.1.
72 * Semi-private GtkTextLayout api has changed: new GtkTextLayout method
73 invalidate_cursors(), and new functions gtk_text_layout_invalidate_cursors()
74 and gtk_text_layout_cursors_changed(), which should be used in place of
75 gtk_text_layout_invalidate() and gtk_text_layout_changed() if invalidation
76 is due to marks moved or changed selection; new GtkTextLineDisplay structure
77 member. Source compatibility is preserved; binary compatibility may break
78 only if GtkTextLineDisplay structure was created on stack or as a part
79 of another structure (in particular GnomeCanvas and its clones do not need
82 * Another new signal has been added to GtkNotebook. The new signal
83 is called create-window, so this name can no longer be used for signals
84 in objects derived from GtkNotebook.
86 * The gtk_notebook_set/get_group_id() functions were found to be insufficient
87 and have been deprecated in favour of gtk_notebook_set/get_group().
89 * The move-focus signal has been moved to GtkWidget, to unify the
90 various implementations of this signal in specific widgets. Great care
91 has been taken to make sure that all code using this signal continues
94 * An unused and hardly visible GtkFrame has been removed from the menu
95 widget hierarchy when GtkComboBox::appears-as-list style property is
96 set. Any RC file applying a different style to any widget below the
97 widget path "gtk-combobox-popup-window.GtkFrame" should take into
98 account that the frame no longer exists.
100 * The external print preview application used by GtkPrintOperationPreview
101 is now passed the print settings on the command line with the
102 --print-settings parameter pointing to a temp file containing the
103 settings. The preview application assumes ownership of the file and
104 should delete it once it does not need it anymore. The --print-settings
105 commandline option is understood by Evince 0.9.0 and newer. To use a
106 different print preview application, change the gtk-print-preview-command
107 setting in your gtkrc file, e.g. gtk-print-preview-command = "ggv %f"
109 * GtkMenuShell is now defined as an abstract type. It was already
110 documented as an abstract class, and there is little reason to
113 * The GtkTooltips struct (this is the old tooltips API) is now considered
114 private. Code that used to access this struct, in particular the
115 tips_data_list field, will need to change. All of the old tooltips
116 API has been deprecated in favour of a new implementation and
117 API. This affects all of the gtk_tooltips_ functions, and functions
118 which take a GtkTooltips argument, such as gtk_tool_item_set_tooltip()
119 and gtk_menu_tool_button_set_arrow_tooltip().
121 * The memory management of the GtkRecentManager object has been changed,
122 as using the screen didn't guarantee that the singleton instance was
123 correctly destroyed. The screen-related functions have been deprecated,
124 and should not be used anymore; the GtkRecentManager instance returned by
125 the gtk_recent_manager_get_default() function is guaranteed to be valid
126 for the entire lifetime of an application.
128 * A number of interfaces that have been superseded by newer interfaces for
129 a long time have finally been deprecated. This includes
130 gtk_widget_ref/unref(), gtk_rc_style_ref/unref() and the old file selector.
132 * The various coordinate systems in use in GtkTreeView widgets have
133 been clarified in the documentation, and in the cause of doing so,
134 the functions gtk_tree_view_widget_to_tree_coords() and
135 gtk_tree_view_tree_to_widget_coords() have been deprecated in
136 favour of a new family of gtk_tree_view_convert_ functions.
138 * gtk_menu_item_remove_submenu() has been deprecated in favour of
139 gtk_menu_item_set_submenu (..., NULL).
141 * gtk_default_draw_check() has been fixed to really decrease the
142 indicator size by one pixel to ensure an odd size instead of
143 accidentially increasing it.
144 Consequently, gtk_cell_renderer_toggle_render() could be fixed to
145 not subtract 1 from the size passed to gtk_paint_option(), which
146 was just a workaround for above off-by-two for even sizes (theme
147 engines now get the real indicator size passed).
148 The default toggle size of GtkCheckMenuItem and GtkCellRendererToggle
149 has been changed to 13 to be consistent with GtkCheckButton.
150 The only visible change with default settings is that the indicator in
151 GtkCellRendererToggle has changed its size from 11 to 13 and is now
152 consistent with menus and toggle buttons.
154 * GTK+ has always required that gtk_init() (or a variant thereof) is
155 called before any other GTK+ function. Some applications call functions
156 like gtk_clipboard_get() to check if they need to call gtk_init(),
157 anyway. A change in GLib 2.14 has recently broken this unsupported
158 practise. It is worth pointing out that calling gtk_init() twice
162 Release notes for 2.10
163 ======================
165 * The hexadecimal Unicode input feature has been reworked. It no longer
166 blocks the use of the sixteen Ctrl-Shift-<hex digit> key sequences. Now
167 it only uses Ctrl-Shift-u.
169 * A memory leak in GtkStyle handling has been fixed. This may expose bugs
170 in third-party widgets which forget to call gtk_style_attach() in their
173 * Range widgets like GtkScrollbar now render their arrows insensitive
174 when the slider is at the end. Applications which react to arrow
175 clicks even if the slider is at the end may want to use the new
176 gtk_range_set_[upper/lower]_stepper_sensitivity() functions to
177 prevent the arrows from being rendered insensitive.
179 * GtkObject now uses the "floating reference" support in GObject.
180 GTK_OBJECT_IS_FLOATING() will still work, but direct checking
181 of the GTK_FLOATING flag will no longer detect the floating
182 reference. Details about floating references can be found in the docs:
183 http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/gobject/gobject-The-Base-Object-Type.html#floating-ref
185 * Accelerators like (_F) are now stripped from labels when they are
186 displayed in toolbars. If this is not wanted, the feature can be
187 suppressed by inserting a Unicode control character, e.g ZWNJ.
189 * The pixbuf theme engine can now customize expanders (in GtkTreeView
190 and GtkExpander) and resize grips, using the new EXPANDER and
191 RESIZE_GRIP function values.
193 * Dialogs created by gtk_about_dialog_new() no longer hide automatically
194 when the user clicks close. It is the applications responsibility to
195 hide or destroy the dialog.
197 * Several new signals have been added to GtkNotebook. Care has been taken
198 to choose signal names which do not collide with signals added by well-known
199 derived classes. The names which can no longer be used for signals in
200 objects derived from GtkNotebook are page-reordered, page-removed and
203 * Due to the interface changes in the file chooser backend interface,
204 the GTK+ ABI version has been bumped to 2.10.0. Third-party filesystem
205 backends have to be ported to the new interface, other modules, such as
206 theme engines, input method modules or pixbuf loaders have to be rebuilt
207 so that they are installed in the right place for GTK+ to find them.
210 Release notes for 2.8
211 =====================
213 * GTK+ 2.8 and Pango 1.10 require the cairo library.
215 * The default theme has been renamed to "Raleigh". Existing configurations
216 specifying the "Default" theme name should still work.
218 * The GtkTreeView::enable-search property has been changed to control
219 only typeahead search, not the C-f keybinding to start an interactive
220 search. To turn off interactive searching completely, you have to
221 set GtkTreeView::search-column to -1.
223 * The restriction on using the same cell renderer in multiple columns
224 of a GtkTreeView is now more strictly enforced.
226 * In GTK+ 2.8, GtkCalendar uses nl_langinfo() (if available) to determine
227 the first day of the week. Thus, it is possible to select the first day
228 of the week independently from the language, by setting LC_TIME.
230 * In GTK+ 2.8, the gtk-update-icon-cache utility includes image data
231 in the icon caches, which will make the icon cache files larger than
232 the one produced by GTK+ 2.6. This change will reduce the memory
233 overhead of icon themes at runtime, since all GTK+ applications can
234 share the image data in memory.
236 * In 2.8, GDK emits GdkEventGrabBroken events when a keyboard or pointer
237 grab is broken. On X11, this can happen if the same application grabs
238 again, or if the window used for the grab becomes unviewable. It happens
239 more often on Win32. Applications which use grabs should pay attention
240 to these events and do the necessary cleanups when the grab is lost.
241 * The GIOChannel code for sockets on win32 has been rewritten.
242 Applications who make non-trivial use of GIOChannels on win32 should
243 be watched for possible problems.
245 * GLib 2.8 uses atomic operations to implement reference counting, thus
246 g_object_ref/unref, g_closure_ref/sink/unref and g_iochannel_ref/unref
247 can be used without locking in multithreaded applications. Note that
248 other modifications, like concurrent setting of properties still require
251 * g_convert() and related character set conversion functions have been
252 fixed to emit pending shift states and to not cache iconv descriptors
253 across multiple calls, since that is problematic for some encodings.
254 Note that these functions are not suitable for streaming conversions;
255 use g_iconv() to do streaming conversion.
258 Release notes for 2.6
259 =====================
261 * GTK+ 2.6 supports clipboard persistency. To make use of this feature,
262 a clipboard manager following the specification at
263 http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards/clipboard-manager-spec
264 must be running. A sample implementation of such a clipboard manager
266 http://people.imendio.com/andersca/archives/clipboard-manager-0.3.tar.gz
267 Applications can use the function gdk_display_supports_clipboard_persistence()
268 to find out if clipboard persistence is available.
270 * Notification on clipboard ownership changes via GdkOwnerChange events
271 requires the XFIXES X extension. Applications can use the function
272 gdk_display_supports_selection_notification() to find out if ownerchip
273 change notification is available.
275 * The icon theme code in GTK+ 2.6 follows the freedesktop.org icon theme
276 specification. Setting the XDG_DATA_DIRS environtment variable may be
277 necessary if your icons aren't installed in the default location
280 * The icon theme code in GTK+ 2.6 can make use of mmap()able cache files
281 to avoid a lot of disk searching overhead. GTK+ includes a utility named
282 gtk-update-icon-cache to generate these cache files. For further details,
283 see the gtk-update-icon-cache man page or the GTK+ documentation.
285 * To reduce code size and improve efficiency, GTK+, when compiled
286 with the GNU toolchain, has separate internal and external entry
287 points for exported functions. The internal names, which begin with
288 IA__, may be seen when debugging a GTK+ program.
290 * The following functions have been deprecated in GTK+ 2.6:
291 gdk_pango_context_set_colormap
292 gtk_cell_renderer_editing_canceled
294 * The new GtkFileChooser widget emphasizes simplicity and thus does
295 not provide a navigation entry by default when opening files.
296 Experienced command line users will likely want to make heavy use of
297 the location dialog brought up by the Control-L key shortcut.
299 * The GTK+ libraries use an '_' prefix to indicate private symbols that
300 must not be used by applications. On some platforms, symbols beginning
301 with prefixes such as _gtk, _gdk, and _pango will be exported
302 from the library, on others not. In no case can applications
303 use these private symbols. In addition to that, GTK+ 2.6 makes several
304 symbols private which were not in any installed header files and
305 were never intended to be exported.
307 * The gdk_pixbuf_xlib library included in the contrib/ directory
308 and the framebuffer GDK backend included in the gdk/linux-fb directory
309 of GTK+ are provided on an as-is basis and have not been tested at all.
310 No guarantees about the degree of workingness or about future
311 compatibility are provided.
313 * On Unix, the assumption of GLib and GTK+ by default is that filenames on
314 the filesystem are encoded in UTF-8 rather than the encoding of the locale;
315 the GTK+ developers consider that having filenames whose interpretation
316 depends on the current locale is fundamentally a bad idea.
318 If you have filenames encoded in the encoding of your locale, then you
319 may want to set the G_FILENAME_ENCODING environment variable:
321 G_FILENAME_ENCODING=@locale
322 export G_FILENAME_ENCODING
324 (Earlier versions of GLib 2.x required a different environment variable
325 setting; G_BROKEN_FILENAMES=1 to achieve the same effect; this
326 is still supported, but G_FILENAME_ENCODING is preferred.)
327 Best integration of GTK+ 2.6 with the environment is achieved by
328 using a UTF-8 locale.
330 On Windows, filenames passed to GTK+ should always be in UTF-8, as
331 in GLib 2.6. This is different than in previous versions of GTK+
332 where the system codepage was used. As in GLib, for DLL ABI
333 stability, applications built against previous versions of GTK+ will
334 use entry points providing the old semantics.
336 When compiling against GTK+ 2.6, applications intended to be
337 portable to Windows must take the UTF-8 file name encoding into
338 consideration, and use the gstdio wrappers to access files whose
339 names have been constructed from strings returned from GTK+ or GLib.
345 Bugs should be reported to the GNOME bug tracking system.
346 (http://bugzilla.gnome.org, product gtk+.) You will need to create an
347 account for yourself.
349 In the bug report please include:
351 * Information about your system. For instance:
353 - What operating system and version
355 - For Linux, what version of the C library
357 And anything else you think is relevant.
359 * How to reproduce the bug.
361 If you can reproduce it with one of the tests or demos built with GTK+,
362 such as demos/gtk-demo/gtk-demo, that would be most convenient. Otherwise,
363 please include a short test program that exhibits the behavior. As a
364 last resort, you can also provide a pointer to a larger piece of software
365 that can be downloaded.
367 * If the bug was a crash, the exact text that was printed out when the
370 * Further information such as stack traces may be useful, but is not
371 necessary. If you do send a stack trace, and the error is an X error,
372 it will be more useful if the stacktrace is produced running the test
373 program with the --sync command line option.
379 Patches should also be submitted to bugzilla.gnome.org. If the patch
380 fixes an existing bug, add the patch as an attachment to that bug
383 Otherwise, enter a new bug report that describes the patch, and attach
384 the patch to that bug report.
386 Bug reports containing patches should include the PATCH keyword in their
387 keyword fields. If the patch adds to or changes the GTK+ programming
388 interface, the API keyword should also be included.
390 Patches should be in unified diff form. (The -u option to GNU diff.)