[gnome-love] determining a library `interface'

[Jon Dowland <lists alcopop org>]

Hello there,

A while ago I was working on a GTK+ hack and I was trying to ensure my
changes did not change any of the library's interfaces, so I wouldn't
break anything.

It occurred to me that with GTK+, you really have a variety of
different "interfaces". There's the C-level API, the ABI, but you also
have a glib "interface": What properties to you express, etc., stuff
which wouldn't show up on the C-API radar.

Can anyone recommend for me tools that could help automate whether or
not I've changed one of these interfaces? I imagine there's an existing
one out there for the ABI or C APIs. Something which checksummed the
interface, perhaps, and compared it after the hack?

Following on from that, can anyone suggest an approach for performing a
similar task for the glib-level interfaces?

In the absence of such tools, would anyone else think they were useful?
I imagine they'd be _great_ for regression tests.

-- 
Jon Dowland
http://jon.dowland.name/