Q: Suitability of GTK+ for critical embedded application

[" Are Leistad" <are leistad chello no>]

Hello GTK list!

I'm evaluating GTK+ as the GUI/windowing toolkit for an embedded project.
After spending a long time reviewing various toolkits, GTK+ is the one
candidate that has bubbled to the top. The other alternative is an
existing proprietary toolkit which is quite good, but the effort
reequired to maintain it could potentially be quite large.
Being able to draw on, and perhaps eventually contribute to, the GTK
communitys efforts is the main advantage for me in picking it up.
So far the concept and the API seems fine and the fact that it's all
in pure C is a big advantage.

The one thing that makes me hesitate is the question about stability.
By stability I mean lack of (serious) bugs and memory leaks.
I've tried to research this on the net, but there's not much to find
in the way of comments on, or assessements of, GTK+ stability.
Since GTK+ uses a number of 3rd party libraries these must
be factored in as well.

The application in question is mission critical, and must be able to
run for extended periods (weeks or more) without any kind of cumulative
degradation of the performance.

If GTK+ gets adopted it will preferably run without X, but rather
use a framebuffer, so or GTK+ on DirectFB is a possibility.
It is noted that GTKfb is no longer maintained. The target platform
is a x86 (ITX) with Suse Linux 2.6, but Windows is used for parts of
the development cycle and the application must be able to run there.
The application is demanding it that it will employ a high number
of widgets. Several thousands of GUI objects will be created, and 
several hundred of these may be exposed at any one time.
Responsive interactivity and quick redrawing is important.

To get a better handle on the suitability of GTK in this case, I ask
the list members for subjective and objective comments on a few issues:

  - general stability of GTK+ (bugs/leaks)?
  - suitability of GTK+ for mission critical embedded application?
  - any hints and tips for this kind of GTK+ usage?
  - best GTK+ options for use with linux framebuffer?
  - performance with thousands visible/hidden widgets on a 500MHz system?
  - to use glade or not... potential problems/instabilities?
  - is there a minimal HTML rendering widget available (for a help system)?
  
Any comments or pointers to information will be greatly appreciated.
   
AL
--