Re: [gtkmm] Questions and information

[Andrew <andrea sansottera fastwebnet it>]

On Sunday 22 June 2003 13:11, Chris Vine wrote:
> On Saturday 21 June 2003 7:48 pm, Andrew wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> > Hi, I'm new to this list but this is my point of view....
> >
> > API:
> > I tried to compile a glib/gtk 2.2 application on a machine powered by a
> > gnome 2.0 release and it did not compile. Is it normal? If glib/gtk API
> > is not stable among minor release, we do not have to expect glibmm/gtkmm
> > to be frozen after a major release. It is enough for glibmm/gtkmm API
> > stability not to be broken between extra-versionnumbers.
> >
> > Anyway, I'd like to be sure that applications written with gtk 2.4 will
> > compile with gtk 2.2... and if C API won't be broken, C++ API must be
> > kept completely backward compatible.
> >
> > ABI:
> > It has surely to be frozen after a major release! A lot of people does
> > not like to compile their applications... ABI stability is necessary for
> > Windows commercial software to be ported on Gnome.
>
> If you mean Gtk+ and Glib (the C libraries) then where possible they will
> maintain API and binary compatibility through the 2.* series, including
> Gtk+ 2.4 and 2.6 (at least, their publicity material states that as one of
> the features of Gtk+ - see also http://www.gtk.org/plan/ which states that
> Gtk+ 3.0 will be the earliest that a source and binary incompatible release
> will be made).
>
> As it happens gtkmm-2.2 is API compatible with gtkmm-2.0 (at any rate, I
> have not had any problem compiling stuff which compiles on gtkmm-2.0 also
> on gtkmm-2.2), but as I last saw it announced gtkmm-2.4 will not be API
> compatible with gtkmm-2.0/2.2.  I do not imagine the breakage will be that
> severe, but I am just a user (!) so I do not really know.
>
> If you want a guarantee of API compatibility through 2.*, unfortunately you
> will probably need to stick to plain Gtk+ and the C API (yuck).  There are
> a few other wrappers around, but except for wxWindows (which is more than
> just a wrapper) they do not seem particularly well maintained.
>
> Chris
>
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I'm suspicious about C API stability... Have you ever tried to compile gtk 2.2 
stuff with gtk 2.0? I tried to compile an application I wrote and I 
discovered that "g_lib_xxx" was not present in the 2.0 C libraries.

So, what I want to say is that if C API has been broken, no matter if C++ API 
will be. Anyway it would be great if both of them will be frozen as soon as 
possible, and broken only when 3.0 releases will be done. I expect gtkmm to 
play an important role in the widespreading of gnome, and I'd like it to be 
included in gnome-2.6 package list. (2.4 package list is already complete 
isn't it?). What about gtmm2.6 in gnome2.6? Do you think it will is possible?

Andrea