java-gnome 4.0.8-rc2

["Andrew Cowie" <install-module gnome org>]

       Module: java-gnome
      Version: 4.0.8-rc2
  Uploaded by: Andrew Cowie

http://download.gnome.org/sources/java-gnome/4.0/java-gnome-4.0.8-rc2.tar.gz
  md5sum: ee6109317e53cc031ae18df7e17485e7
 sha1sum: c858e993a3dbedebbdb34eeca37f074ee9ada7eb
    size: 636K

http://download.gnome.org/sources/java-gnome/4.0/java-gnome-4.0.8-rc2.tar.bz2
  md5sum: a103cf49322676ea663a30db7e0c77ff
 sha1sum: 3ef8e26018d914cec74ca0cc84a5cc7dada47f5e
    size: 460K

News
----

<a name="4.0.8" id="1209449091" title="Cleanups and signals revised"></a>

java-gnome 4.0.8 (10 Aug 2008)
==============================

_Cleanups and bug fixes._

While this release is mostly to push out bug fixes and internal improvements,
we've also taken the opportunity to introduce a major change to the way we
connect handlers for signals.

New coverage and continuing improvement
---------------------------------------

With thanks to new contributors Stefan Prelle and Andreas Kuehntopf we have a
number of small improvements to the TreeView/TreeModel APIs.

* **`org.gnome.gtk.TreeView`**
* **`org.gnome.gtk.TreeViewColumn`**
* **`org.gnome.gtk.TreeViewColumnSizing`**
* **`org.gnome.gtk.CellRendererText`**
* **`org.gnome.gtk.CellRendererToggle`**

As always, Widget and Window saw a bunch of work, with `Window.ConfigureEvent`
now being available and a number of additional property setters and methods
relating to window type.

* **`org.gnome.gdk.WindowTypeHint`**
* **`org.gnome.gtk.Widget`**
* **`org.gnome.gtk.Window`**

Error handling continues to improve. In the (hand written) public API wrapper
layer we do our best to catch  misuses of the library before they get sent to
the native code. But that's not always possible, and in 4.0.7 we introduced a
mechanism whereby GLib error messages get translated into Java Exceptions and
thrown. In 4.0.8, in addition to  `ERROR` and `CRITICAL`, `WARNING`s are also
thrown as Exceptions. Getting a stack trace this way has proved very useful in
helping developers track down where they are making mistakes in using the
library.

Build changes
-------------

java-gnome now defines C compiler flags like `GTK_DISABLE_DEPRECATED` to
ensure we are not linking against code that will be unavailable in GTK 3.0.
Many thanks are due to new contributor Kenneth Prugh for having done some
terrific grunt work to remove deprecated classes and methods from our `.defs`
data so that java-gnome compiles without using these APIs.

Documentation, examples, and testing
------------------------------------

Our [API documentation](doc/api/overview-summary.html) and the growing set of
[example code](doc/examples/START.html) have all been updated to reflect the
new signal interface names.

Conclusion
----------

You can see the full changes accompanying a release by grabbing a copy of the
sources and running:

    $ bzr diff -r tag:v4.0.7..tag:v4.0.8

Because of the API changes to signal handling this release touches just about
every public class in the library and so isn't quite as clean (as a summary)
as in previous releases -- but it does tell you everything `:)`.

Looking ahead
-------------

Most of the contributors to java-gnome are working on branches that didn't
reach sufficient maturity to be merged in time for 4.0.8; that's the way it
goes sometimes. That said, major effort continues on implementing coverage of
GTK's powerful TextView/TextBuffer APIs, along with further drawing
capabilities in Cairo and Pango. There have also been a surprising level of
interest on other areas of the GNOME stack, with new contributors working on
adding support to java-gnome for Nautilus, GStreamer, and even WebKit!
Exciting stuff.

AfC

<a name="signal" id="1217552625" title="Signal API change"></a>

Signal API change
=================

We have changed the naming scheme used to name the interfaces that are used
when hooking up signal handlers.

Connecting a handler to a Button now looks as follows:

<pre style="background:white; color:black;">
b.connect(new Button.Clicked() {
    public void onClicked(Button source) {
        // do stuff
    }
});
</pre>

Those developing with java-gnome will recognize that the inner interface's
name has changed to `Button.Clicked`, being more appropriate to Java type
naming conventions and providing better consistency between the signal name,
the method to be implemented, `onClicked()`, and the method that can be used
to emit this signal, `emitClicked()`.

The process which led to this change was discussed on the `java-gnome-hackers`
mailing list; see first [message][] if interested.

[message]: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnome.bindings.java.devel/1147

Interfaces with the old names and corresponding `connect()` methods are still
present in the library (marked ` deprecated`, of course, and with assertions
to encourage developers to migrate their code) so the upcoming release will
preserve ABI compatibility.

The [documentation](/4.0/doc/api/overview-summary.html) posted here has been
updated and a [release candidate][rc] has been uploaded.

[rc]: http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/java-gnome/4.0/java-gnome-4.0.8-rc1.tar.bz2

AfC

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