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GTK 2.6.0 Released

Posted by michael on from the rated-n-for-gnome dept.

baijum81 writes "GTK 2.6.0 has been released. As usual Pango and Glib have been released along with it. Release notes are here: GTK, Pango and Glib."

43 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. They're improving the file dialogs... by Lisandro · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...which is good. The file chooser improved a lot on GTK2, but it could still use some polish.

    BTW, does anyone knows if GTK supports the Composite render extension available on X.ORG? Or perhaps it has nothing to do with it and doesn't need it? I tried enabling compositing on XFCE 4.2rc2, and while the desktop looked MUCH better (with true transparency, window shadows and the works), it slowed my system to a crawl.

    1. Re:They're improving the file dialogs... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's a video driver issue, unfortunately. There's only one driver for Xorg at the moment that accelerates the necessary operations for translucency. (the non-free nNivia driver).

      There's a planned port of the Kdrive acceleration architecture that'll make it much easier to accelerate it with other drivers.

    2. Re:They're improving the file dialogs... by flithm · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Just so people don't get the wrong idea about Composite or Xorg, on my relatively modern (but by no means uber) computer xorg + composite + translucency + drop shadows doesn't slow it down one bit. In fact with all the effects on the windows actually appear to slide around smoother than they did before, although I'm sure this some kind of psychological effect.

      Also of note is that I have one graphics card driving two monitors, and it's still not an issue.

      Don't be afraid to try Composite on Xorg! And if you run into problems submit bug reports! Xorg has great promise. Let's all help to make it as good as it could be (and no I'm in no way related to the Xorg project. I just think eye-candy is where its at).

    3. Re:They're improving the file dialogs... by Pflipp · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Put differently, the file chooser hasn't been fucked up more since Eugenia started her contest. I hate not being able to do a tab-based regexp search, as common in ye olde GTK+. Yet, patience may be the solution.

      --
      "We can confirm that Debian does *not* ship the version with the trojan horse. Our version predates it." [CA-2002-28]
    4. Re:They're improving the file dialogs... by silvaran · · Score: 2, Informative

      You really need to have hardware acceleration enabled to use composite effectively. I've found that with the NVIDIA binary drivers, and RenderAccel enabled, it feels much, much smoother than without the composite manager running. If you have an NVIDIA card, you can do this in your video device section:

      Option "RenderAccel" "true"

      Then run "xcompmgr -c" on the active $DISPLAY while X is running (unless your window manager du jour has built-in composite support) and you're ready to go.

    5. Re:They're improving the file dialogs... by Lisandro · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Agreed. Windows, for example, opens a window slightly bigger and with less space dedicated to the directories shortcuts, which improve usability a great deal. It could work well with the new GTK dialog.

      Like i said earlier, it's just a matter of polish. Generally speaking, i like the new file dialog.

    6. Re:They're improving the file dialogs... by MighMoS · · Score: 2, Informative

      Um, not entirely. The window manager....manages windows. As such, it has complete control over the window as a whole, as well as drawing borders around it. Check out Luminocity if you're interested.

    7. Re:They're improving the file dialogs... by coaxial · · Score: 2, Informative

      There should be a text input working in parallel with the gui. Sometimes, it's easier to just type the name, especially with the help of auto completion. It's also convenient to cut/paste the pathname in the file selector.

      A lot of people agree with you. [url:http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=136 541] The gtk2.4 filechooser was a big mistake. I have no idea if this is fixed in 2.6. It really should be since people have been bitching about this dialog the moment it was placed in wide release. Of course this isn't the only dubious "improvement" in GTK/GNOME's usability.

    8. Re:They're improving the file dialogs... by ernstp · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's because you are using NVidias binary driver, right?
      Then you have the RENDER extension hardware accellerated, and RENDER is used to compose and draw the transparent bitmaps.
      Some X.org OSS drivers also have accellerated render, not as good as nvidias though.

      (ATI's driver sucks :-)

    9. Re:They're improving the file dialogs... by peterjm · · Score: 2, Informative

      you're obviously on crack - or you have translucency turned on for that one little window that's never above anything else.

      try joining xorg on freenode. The channel topic says it sall "composite is slow, we know".

      now, don't get me wrong. I love what the composite extension can do; But don't go getting people's hopes up, "ooh, my 900Mhz celeron proc with a 32 meg graphics card will look just like my dads powerbook" cuz it ain't gonna happen.

    10. Re:They're improving the file dialogs... by St.+Arbirix · · Score: 2, Informative

      Bug report #11120759:
      Assumption that all graphic hardware manufacturers have binary drivers for the current stable Xorg release which allow for translucency and shadows to work is incorrect.

      Affects: Many, if not all ATI cards and Xorg >= 6.8.0

      Workaround: harass the hell out of ATI

      --
      Direct away from face when opening.
  2. Re:GTK? by malarkey · · Score: 3, Informative

    from the website:

    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+ 2.6 will be incorporated into version 2.10 of the GNOME desktop.

  3. Re:Priorities, priorities by eno2001 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Asshole mods. Actually, I think the monkey got it right. This kind of news IS "stuff that matters". After all, why else would anyone be reading Slashdot other than the articles about computer related (with a free/open bent) technologies and software? If you aren't reading for that reason, then you're in the wrong place. That's why I've devoted my JEs to discussing technology/software/asking linux related questions, etc... Oh yeah, and the occasional dig at Slashdot and trolling.

    --
    -"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
  4. I love Gnome and GTK by bonch · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...but when are they going to just go full-on GTK# running on a Mono framework? :D

    Beat Microsoft at its own .NET game.

    1. Re:I love Gnome and GTK by aldoman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      But how long do we as an OSS community stop very new and exciting development in the premise of 'it doesn't work on 0.5% of systems'?!

      Linux _desperately_ needs to have a working, easy to use RAD environment. Something as simple, or simpler than Visual Basic. I want to be able to create a simple Linux application by dragging and dropping some form elements onto a page and double clicking on a button and typing a few lines of simple code and have it all working.

      Glade is good, but it's not easy enough.

      Mono has the possibility of bringing this to fruition. I want to see sharpdevelop making good GTK# apps in a few hours.

      --
      IntechHosting - Free domain, 2GB, PHP, £4.95/$8.95
    2. Re:I love Gnome and GTK by binner1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      One thing that will really screw up the VB crowd moving to GTK+ is the way that windows are designed. Designing a window for GTK/Gnome (optionally using Glade) means building a hierarcy of widgets in containers. In Windows with VB, you just put the widget where you want it.

      GTK/Gnome is more 'difficult'** up front but reduces the work by the programmer when it comes to resizing a window. Windows is 'easier' up front but makes the programmer painfully aware of the location of widgets after the fact (window resizing, etc).

      Personally, once you've gotten over the 'lack of free form design' shock, I like the GTK/Gnome approach much better.

      **I haven't coded anything for Windows in a few years, so things may have changed with .Net and WinForms (?) in the meantime. I also don't think the GTK way is difficult...it's just different.

      -Ben

    3. Re:I love Gnome and GTK by Late · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "I haven't coded anything for Windows in a few years, so things may have changed with .Net and WinForms (?) in the meantime."

      Not really. WinForms has a sensible class structure and generally cleaner design than MFC, but basic positioning is still considered more or less absolute.

      Where I work we have bought and external toolkit (Syncfusion) which offers layout managers and then we just use gridbadlayout just like most Java developers do. Syncfusion would integrate nicely into the Windows Form designer for drag and drop, but we have chosen to create a simple XML description language and generate the user interfaces from description files (with a preview tool of course).

  5. Thanks!! by NotoriousQ · · Score: 4, Informative

    My thanks as usual to the people who build GTK and Pango. I guess that I have not yet really learned to appreciate the people behind the curtain, the GLib people, but since they make GTK possible, thanks to them as well.

    Currently GTK is one of my favorite toolkits. The reason: Pango. I use multiple languages in my documents, as well as the compose button, and all GTK apps handle it perfectly (I use utf-8 of course). And although the input methods are somewhat redundant architecture that should be lower than the level of the toolkit IMHO, GTK input methods are the best, especially when combined with UIM.

    Thank again to all the people involved.

    BTW: is there a keyboard shortcut to switching input methods. UIM has it, but I sometimes need to switch to cyrillic translit (can not use ru phonetic since the keyboard is in dvorak) from Chinese and back, and that is a bit painful?

    --
    badness 10000
    1. Re: Thanks!! by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2, Insightful


      > Currently GTK is one of my favorite toolkits. The reason: Pango. I use multiple languages in my documents

      I just recently discovered that GTK+ with Pango has cool monolingual uses as well, since it supports a simple markup language that lets you very easily do things to the text in your menus, buttons, etc., such as italicize, sub- or superscript, etc.

      Google for "pango markup language" for more info.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  6. Re:GTK? by ivan256 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Two options:

    Click the word that you didn't understand, "GTK," in the article. It was convieniently made into a link for people like you who don't know what it is. The text on this linked page is nice enough to start out with a concise description of what GTK is, and gets into more detail if you care to learn more. Here's an example: "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 projects to complete application suites." This is what hypertext is designed for. The author of this story did the "Right Thing"®

    Click the "Preferences" option on the left and uncheck sections which contain articles you don't understand so you don't see them on the front page anymore.

  7. A lot of stuff in Gtk is replacing Gnome widgets.. by Abcd1234 · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you read the release notes, it's interesting to see that many of the changes are the creation of widgets that are intended to replace stuff in the Gnome libraries (e.g., the new icon viewer widget). It makes one wonder where the line should be drawn between the widget set and an aggregate library. Moreover, I wonder what the drivers are for moving these things back into Gtk if they're already present in the Gnome stuff (other than to reduce dependencies).

  8. A new GTK release by GreatBunzinni · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Here is a new GTK release and I bet that once again it will be almost impossible to install it easily and successfully through the config/make/make install way. Damn those dependencies. Damn them to hell.

    --
    Slashdot, fix your code or at least hire someone who is competent at it to do it for you.
  9. Re:GTK? by DaHat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why tell people what something is? Very simple, to attract potential users.

    Take your sig for example... someone who doesn't know what it is most likely going to say "Firefox? What is that? Why should I get it?" Yes, they could go to the webpage and inquire for themselves, but that takes effort, and many (including Slashdot readers) like a brief summery that helps them decide if they will click on the link to learn more.

    --
    Help Brendan pay off his student loans
  10. GTK != Grand Theft Potassium by viva_fourier · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sorry to disappoint you chemistry geeks out there, it's been verified: I did a search on GTK and did not find any Grand Theft K 3d chemistry gaming references...apparently it's some toolkit for gimps.

    Move along, nothing to see here.

    --
    and now back to the fallout shelter...
    1. Re:GTK != Grand Theft Potassium by Tribbin · · Score: 2, Funny

      Grand Theft KDE?

      --
      If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
    2. Re:GTK != Grand Theft Potassium by iabervon · · Score: 2, Funny

      The "you die if you fall into water" property got merged into GTA, so the potassium version didn't matter much.

  11. Re:GTK? by HishamMuhammad · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A sad day it will be when we actually need to explain what GTK is on Slashdot. Hopefully, this day has not arrived yet.

    (Sorry about the rant, but I just had to. I guess posts like the parent are the sign of the times... :-\ )

    --
    The filesystem is the package manager
  12. Re:A lot of stuff in Gtk is replacing Gnome widget by MarkLewis · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, Gtk# originally started as a managed wrapper just for GTK+ (hence the name), but has since grown to include the rest of the Gnome libraries (gnomeui, pango, etc) as well.

    The fact that they haven't changed the name is misleading, but all the base GNOME libraries are available.

  13. These Gentoo compilation jokes are so damn funny.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ..that by the time I've stopped laughing at this one the next one will have been told!

    (Moderators, please stop modding those up, they've been old for ages.)

  14. Speed improvements by arvindn · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Some X protocol round trip reduction improvements have made it to this release, so if you've been frustrated by a gnome program over an ssh session taking 30 seconds to start (I sure have!) then 2.6 will probably speed things up.

  15. Re:But I run Gentoo! by Excelsior · · Score: 2, Funny

    And by the time distros other than Gentoo have support for gtk+ 2.6.1, gtk+ 3.2.4 will be out.

  16. Fortran? by Aardpig · · Score: 2, Funny

    Bah, no bindings for Fortran. It would be nice to see a decent open-source GUI toolkit for Fortran; a front end does wonders for the ability of PHBs to appreciate a piece of code.

    --
    Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
  17. They're improving the file dialogs...Keys. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    "I hate not being able to do a tab-based regexp search, as common in ye olde GTK+. "

    Control+L

  18. Re:Better for windows users now by msaavedra · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The difference between Wimp and other GTK engines is that it uses the windows GUI engine to draw most things, so they are identical to the native windows controls. It does a better job of this in Windows XP than in previous versions, though. Wimp still causes quite a bit of pain in Windows 98. As for wxPython, I've switched away from that to pyGTK, for a couple of reasons. First, the stable version of Wx uses a really ancient version of GTK on unix. Second, I really disliked the API. I have heard that it is similar in style to MFC, and if that is the case, I'm glad I've been able to stay away from Windows-only programming as long as I have.

    --
    "Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it."
    --Henry David Thoreau
  19. Re:Will it work with wxwidgets? by VZ · · Score: 2, Informative

    We haven't tested wx with 2.6.0 yet so it is possible that currently something is broken (as you say, ideally it shouldn't be, but in practice GTK+ minor version upgrades have often proved to have not so minor compatibility problems). However our next 2.5.4 release will definitely work with it as will the next stable 2.6.0 (of wx, not GTK+). Hopefully they will match each other as perfectly as their versions do ;-)

  20. Re:A lot of stuff in Gtk is replacing Gnome widget by Burnon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Much of the motivation on the devel mailing lists seemed to be oriented around the idea that the gnome libraries had things in them that weren't quite ready for the gtk/glib guys to commit to supporting in the API-stable 2.x series forever. So the code was put into GNOME libraries to get GNOME apps out the door. When implementations and APIs for things that are generally useful to people doing GTK-only stuff got clean enough for everyone concerned, then they got picked up.

  21. No matter how hard C is, gtk/glib is impressive. by master_p · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I prefer Qt, as I think C++ is better overall, but I've got to give credit to the gtk/glib guys. They've done a tremendous API, all in C!

  22. Type in the path!!! by rice_burners_suck · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm glad they brought back the ability to type a path in the file dialog, with search-ahead. This was sorely lacking in GNOME lately.

  23. Two Questions by KidSock · · Score: 3, Interesting

    On Windows, if you type a sequence of characters quickly in a list control (such as in a file dialog) the focus jumps to an item that begins with those letters. Will GTK every implement that?

    Also, is there is a way to change the standard file dialog without recompiling everything? I want to set my own custom file dialog.

  24. Re:GTK? by Narchie+Troll · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What are the others? Fltk isn't what I'd call industrial-strength; Qt is in some cases neither open-source nor free-of-cost.

  25. Re:only Qt/X11 and Qt/Mac are GPL'd by Al+Dimond · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've always wondered about that... would it be legal for somebody to take the Qt/X11 code or the Qt/Mac code and make a GLP'd Qt/Win version? If Qt/X11 and Qt/Mac are GPL one would think it should be legal, anyhow.

    Not that it would be easy, or any more necessary than the Windows port of GTK+ (which is nice sometimes but certainly not necessary to have a running Windows system), just possible.

  26. Re:No matter how hard C is, gtk/glib is impressive by drooling-dog · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Use gtkmm.

    Indeed. It's a very nice implementation, and much cleaner than the underlying GTK+ interface. I'm surprised that it isn't used more widely than it is.

  27. Re:QT GTK by rotty · · Score: 2, Insightful

    an object oriented language is the way to go.

    Altough C is not an OO language, it can be used in an OO way. And this is exactly what GObject, the object system upon which GTK+ is built provides; GTK+ has an OO API, not a procedural one, despite it's written in C. Wrapping this in C++ (or another OO language) is relatively straightforward; you get a nicer syntax, but the concepts stay the same.