GTK+ user interface libraries, version 2.2

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

The GTK+ team is proud to announce the release of version 2.2 of the
GTK+ widget toolkit and associated libraries (GLib, Pango, and
ATK). GTK+-2.2 continues to enhance the state of the art of free
software user interface toolkits while maintaining binary and
interface compatibility with GTK+-2.0.

What is GTK+
============

GTK+ is a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user
interfaces. Offering a complete set of widgets, GTK+ is suitable for
projects ranging from small one-off projects to complete application
suites.

GTK+ is based on three libraries developed by the GTK+ team:

 - GLib is the low-level core library that forms the basis of GTK+ and
   GNOME. It provides data structure handling for C, portability
   wrappers, and interfaces for such runtime functionality as an event
   loop, threads, dynamic loading, and an object system.
 
 - Pango is a library for layout and rendering of text, with an 
   emphasis on internationalization. It forms the core of
   text and font handling for GTK+

 - The ATK library provides a set of interfaces for accessibility.
   By supporting the ATK interfaces, an application or toolkit can
   be used with such tools as screen readers, magnifiers,
   and alternative input devices.

GTK+ has been designed from the ground up to support a range of
languages, not only C/C++. Using GTK+ from languages such as Perl and
Python (especially in combination with the Glade GUI builder) provides
an effective method of rapid application development.

GTK+ is free software and part of the GNU Project. However, the
licensing terms for GTK+, the GNU LGPL, allow it to be used by all
developers, including those developing proprietary software, without
any license fees or royalties.

Since its origins as the toolkit for the GNU Image Manipulation
Program (GIMP), GTK+ has been used in a wide range of software.
Notably, GTK+ is the foundation of the GNOME desktop; a version of
the GNOME desktop taking advantage of the new capabilities of 
GTK+-2.2 will be released in the first part of 2002. GTK+ 2.2 
will be available in standard installations of many operating 
systems including Linux and Solaris.


What's new in GTK+-2.2
======================

More extensive information about new features in GLib-2.2, Pango-1.2,
ATK-1.2, and GTK+-2.2 can be found in the individual release
announcements; to list just a few of the major highlights:

Multihead support:

 The X backend for GTK+-2.2 now supports simultaneous connections to
 multiple X servers, and X servers with multiple screens. Toplevel
 windows can be migrated between screens and even servers on the
 fly. GTK+ also now includes support for systems that merge multiple
 monitors into a single large virtual area, such as Xinerama.

Support for the fontconfig and Xft2 libraries:

 The fontconfig and Xft2 libraries (http://www.fontconfig.org) are now
 the preferred way for Pango and GTK+ to locate and render fonts on
 Linux and Unix. This provides much improved location and matching of
 fonts and antialiased rendering, even on older X servers.

New font support in Pango:

 Support for OpenType Indic fonts has been added based on the code
 from the ICU library (http://oss.software.ibm.com/icu/).  Shapers for
 Hangul and Thai fonts have also been added for the Xft backend.
 
Improved ports:

 Much work has gone into the Microsoft Windows and Linux-framebuffer
 ports of GTK+ since the 2.0 release.  These ports are substantially
 complete, and many applications developed for the X11 version of GTK+
 are being used with these backends.

gdk-pixbuf enhancements:

 Loaders for the gdk-pixbuf image library can now be installed
 separately from GTK+. By providing a gdk-pixbuf loader module, an
 image format can be made available to all GTK+ apps on the
 system. For example, the librsvg library now installs a loader module
 for SVG images.

Support for new X extensions and standards:

 GTK+-2.2 adds support for the RANDR extension for screen size changes
 and for startup notification via a draft freedesktop.org
 protocol. Interoperability with Qt for inter-application embedding
 via the XEMBED protocol has been improved.

Where to get more information about GTK+-2.2
============================================

Information about GTK+ including links to documentation can be
found at http://www.gtk.org/

More information about Pango can be found at 
http://www.pango.org/

More information about ATK can be found at 
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/

- GLib-2.2.0 release announcement 
     http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-announce-list/2002-December/msg00086.html
- Pango-1.2.0 release announcement
     http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-announce-list/2002-December/msg00087.html
- ATK-1.2.0 release announcement 
     http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-announce-list/2002-December/msg00088.html
- Complete GTK+-2.2.0 release announcement 
     http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-announce-list/2002-December/msg00089.html

An installation guide for GTK+-2.2 is found at:

 http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.2/gtk/gtk-building.html