GTK+ 2.12.0 is now available for download at:
ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/2.12/
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/gtk+/2.12/
gtk+-2.12.0.tar.bz2 md5sum: e9c280afec29b11772af5a7c807abf41
gtk+-2.12.0.tar.gzmd5sum: f2534dfaabb3dcff6da04976ef8d486e
Release notes are available at:
http://www.gtk.org/gtk-2.12-notes.html
Note that due to a mistake on my part, this version of GTK+
validates all icon caches when they are mapped, which causes
considerable disk activity and slows application startup.
To avoid this problem, distribution packagers should include
the change from svn trunk to only validate icon caches when
debugging. See http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=476342
What is GTK+
GTK+ is a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user
interfaces. Offering a complete set of widgets, GTK+ is
suitable for projects ranging from small one-off tools to
complete application suites.
GTK+ has been designed from the ground up to support a range
of languages, not only C/C++. Using GTK+ from languages such
as Perl and Python (especially in combination with the Glade
GUI builder) provides an effective method of rapid application
development.
GTK+ is free software and part of the GNU Project. However,
the licensing terms for GTK+, the GNU LGPL, allow it to be
used by all developers, including those developing proprietary
software, without any license fees or royalties. GTK+ is the
only 100% free-of-cost open source industrial-strength GUI
toolkit available today.
Since its origins as the toolkit for the GNU Image
Manipulation Program (GIMP), GTK+ has been used in a wide
range of software. Notably, GTK+ is the foundation of the
GNOME desktop; GTK+ 2.12 will be incorporated into version
2.20 of the GNOME desktop.
What's new in GTK+ 2.12
===
GTK+ 2.12 adds significant new functionality while maintaining
source and binary compatibility with GTK+ 2.10. Highlights of
new features and improvements in GTK+ 2.12 are:
Tooltips
2.12 brings a completely new tooltip implementation which
allows many things that were not possible before. Tooltips
can be placed on insensitive widgets and on treeviews.
They can contain rich markup, or even arbitrary widgets.
Interface builder support
GtkBuilder can generate user interfaces from XML descriptions
which are very similar to glade files. Going beyond the
capabilities of glade, GtkBuilder can also construct objects
which are not widgets, such as tree models. To ease the
transition from libglade to GtkBuilder, GTK+ includes a tool
that can convert glade files to GtkBuilder files.
Keyboard navigation
Keyboard navigation has seen quite a bit of work this cycle;
with an eye towards consistent handling of keynav failures and
better support for platforms with no or very poor keyboards,
like the Maemo platform, or phones. Since much of this is
about adapting GTK+ to the platform it runs on, a lot of this
is based on settings.
New widgets and objects
* GtkVolumeButton, a volume control for multimedia applications
* GtkScaleButton, the base class for GtkVolumeButton
* GtkRecentAction, an action that represents a recent-files list
Changes in the file chooser
The file chooser search functionality now, with backends for
several indexers, like beagle, tracker and Spotlight. Recent
files also appear in the file chooser. The location of the
Desktop folder is no longer hardcoded, but determined by the
xdg-user-dirs mechanism.
Changes in text view and entry widgets
The text widgets now use a block cursor in overwrite mode.
The cursor color can be controlled by the application.
gdk-pixbuf changes
* Exif orientation information is handled
* Support Sun medialib for hardware acceleration
For more details and lists of fixed bugs, see the
announcements for the 2.11.x development releases:
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2007-May/msg00248.html
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2007-June/msg00010.html
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2007-June/msg00049.html
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2007-June/msg00223.html
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2007-June/msg00253.html
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2007-July/msg5.html
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2007-July/msg00071.html
Where to get more information about GTK+
Information about GTK+ including links to documentation can be
found at:
http://www.gtk.org/
An installation guide for GTK+ 2.x is found at:
http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/gtk/gtk-building.html
Common questions:
http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/gtk/gtk-question-index.html
http://www.gtk.org/faq/
Contributing
GTK+ is a large project and relies on voluntary contributions.
We are actively searching for new contributors in various areas
and invite everyone to help project development.
If you are willing to parti
