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Re: [platform-dev] [platform-swt-dev] SWT-GTK3 bugs for 4.9

Hi,

On 06/11/2018 03:21 AM, Robert Zenz wrote:
On 08.06.2018 17:51, Eric Williams wrote:
Are you referring to "interim" GTK3 releases like GTK3.16/3.18/3.20?

I'm talking about the whole GTK+ release cycle. At least the last thing I've
heard is that a new GTK+ version is being released every two years, that means
that one version is dropped every two years. That means that you get two years
of instability (with the interim versions) and then two years of stability,
afterwards it's deprecated, dead and gone. I've already seen people calling for
removing GTK+2 from distribution repositories because it will be
deprecated...this whole thing is absolutely insane considering we are talking
about a toolkit! Imagine if libc, or the Linux kernels public API, had such a
release cycle. It's madness in my eyes and pretty much removes GTK+ from the
list of viable platforms to build upon.

This is incorrect, the deprecation scheme in GTK (at least GTK3) was quite aggressive but not quite as bad as you've listed it here.

GTK2.24 was released in 2011. That is the final and stable version of GTK2. This is (roughly) when GTK3 development began. GTK3 deprecated a lot of the API from GTK2, and while they are deprecated they will not be removed until GTK4. This means GTK2 API support should (in theory) work until GTK4 released, which is now roughly 7-8 years. During this 7-8 years of GTK3 development, you have the option to use the interim releases of GTK3, or continue to use GTK2. The same will be true when GTK4 is released -- API deprecated by GTK4 won't be removed until GTK5, and so on.

In reality, GTK3 broke a lot of API even though the GTK devs guaranteed it would work. IMO they have received a lot of flak about this, and not all of it unjustified. However, updating a toolkit to be more modern is quite an undertaking so I can also see their POV a little bit. The gap between GTK2 and GTK3 is quite large, and I don't think it will be quite as large for future GTK releases. However even with GTK2 -> GTK3, the GTK2 API has been working for ~8 years or so.

Bottom line: the GTK release scheme is aggressive but not quite as bad as losing API every 2 years.

Of course this is beyond the control of SWT, so we just have to live with it and make do with what we can. We are in touch with the GTK devs semi regulary, and they do help us out with patches from time-to-time. :)


Eric


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