Re: GTK stability for GIMP 1.0

[Owen Taylor <owt1 cornell edu>]

> It would be preferable if GTK 1.0 was released before GIMP 1.0.
> To this end, we need to determine exactly what needs to be done
> in order for GTK to go to 1.0.  
> 
> What new *features* need/should go into 1.0?  Just reference 
> counting stuff?  

Well, it would be really nice if we had a working text widget.
But that may not be doable at this point.

Reference counting is really in two parts. There is the stuff
in gtk-mvo-971013 (reference counting for GDK stuff, mostly).
I have that integrated into my tree locally have patches
for the GIMP so it compiles. Still haven't fully tested it, though.

Then there are modifications for reference counting for GtkObjects.
As proposed by Marius, they won't require many (any?) changes for 
GTK programs, though they will for language bindings. It would
be nice to have this stuff in 1.0, but that really depends on
whether Marius has time to do it.

> If the wchar stuff isn't heavily used, can we not use it until
> after 1.0?  

It would be possible, though unpleasant, to modify things to
do without it. I think I now know how to fix things up, however,
so that shouldn't be necessary. (Except for Harald Meland's 
configure problems)
 
> As I see it, it would be nice to resolve the wchar for 0.99.1.
> That seems to be the major problem with 0.99.0.  We should put
> out 0.99.1 for GIMP 0.99.17, since that gets people to test it
> right away.

Sure.

> Then we should put all new features in, like the reference 
> counting.  Anything that breaks compatibility should go in as 
> soon as possible.  (after 0.99.1)

Do you want to try _not_ to break backwards compatibility for
0.99.1 - I could put in (the existing portion of) the refcounting
patches tonight and provide patches against the GIMP.
 
> Does this sound reasonable?

-----

Here is everything (except for bug fixes) that I know is 
outstanding/being worked on (the list includes things that
definitely aren't ready for GTK 1.0, and things that may
never be part of GTK proper)

Other peoples stuff (major things)
----------------------------------

Tree widget:  (Jerome Bolliet)
  Works well, though it isn't really general enough, and
  suffers the scalability problems of GtkList.

Filled/line broken labels: (Geoffrey Dairiki)
  Works pretty well - needs some minor API changes that the author
  might not have time for until January.

Tooltips as a widget: (Geoffrey Dairiki)
  The right thing to do. I haven't tested it yet, but it probably
  is pretty workable. (Requires previous patch.) The old API
  could be retained to get a high degree of compatibility, but
  programs should really use the Widget API instead.

Bezier curves for GTK: (Ryan Willhoit)
  Not tested. Would be neat to have, but not high priority (I think)

gettext'ize library: (Tom Tromey)
  Patch marks appropriate strings, but doesn't integrate gettext
  into the distribution. Marking strings is probably pretty
  harmless, integrating gettext into the distribution would probably
  cause configuration problems on some systems - especially if
  done by a non-automake/autoconf/gettext expert.

Backup / mkdir buttons for file selection dialog: (Stefan Wille)
  Patch exists, I haven't tested it. Tim said he would work on it.
  Probably not a high priority.

CList widget: (Jay Painter)
  Works well. Isn't really general enough, but quite useful.

ComboBox widget: (Paolo Molaro)
  Not quite ready for prime time. I'll provide more detailed
  comments when I get a chance.

Color/visual handling from XmHTML: (Quartic)
  Status unknown.

Text widget fixes: (Arun Sharma)
  Status unknown

GtkObject reference counting fixes: (Marius Vollmer)
  Status unknown

NGrid widget: (Daniel Risacher / Peter Norton)
  Part of the Lemur project. Screenshots exist.

Grid widget(s): (Ryan Willhoit)
  Will allow filling cell contents on demand. Status unknown.

Things that I'm working on
--------------------------

Further XInput patches.
  People have tested them and they work pretty much OK. Shouldn't
  affect people not using Xinput. There are some non-functional
  but stable parts. Mostly bug fixes.

Event filters for GDK. (Remove GdkOtherEvent)
  Shouldn't affect much outside of GDK. Needed for GtkSocket/GtkPlug
  prototypes and useful in general.

GtkSocket/Plug widgets.
  Exist in prototype form. Not for 1.0 (parts of them should probably
  be integrated into GDK.)

Changes to GraphicsExpose handling.
  The GIMP won't work right until these go in. Not strictly backwards
  compatible but shouldn't require fixing anything that wasn't 
  already broken.

Marius's GDK refcounting patch
  Had one bug in it; otherwise seems to work OK.