GTK+ 3.2 released
GTK is a popular UI toolkit that was initially developed for the GIMP software and has since become popular as the toolkit for the Gnome desktop environment and the software that runs on it. Recently GTK 3.0 was released in parallel to Gnome 3, which was based on the latest version of this toolkit.
Now with Gnome 3.2 around the horizon, GTK 3.2 has been released. GTK 3.2 brings many improvements, and new Widgets ( according to the release announcement):
- Many improvements to the CSS theming support
- Width-for-height support in many more widgets:
- GtkPaned
- GtkMenuBar
- GtkNotebook
- New experimental Wayland and HTML5 backends
- GtkFileChooser and GtkAssistant have received face-lifts
- The GtkFontSelection has been replaced by a new family of GtkFontChooser widgets
- New widgets: GtkLockButton and GtkOVerlay
Some of the more interesting new features in this release are the new backends. Wayland is a replacement for the X Windows System that is in heavy development. Currently there isn’t much one can do with the feature, but it shows that GTK is moving in that direction as well.
More interesting is the experimental new HTML5 backend. It is a new backend that will allow GTK applications to run in the browser – or more accurately be displayed in a browser – either locally or remotely. This backend displays an app’s UI on an HTML canvas. The UI is sent to the HTML over the network, and any interaction with the canvas is sent back to the app so it can respond appropriately. It is still an “experimental” backend, yet it could be interesting to see where this feature goes. You can see a video of it in action here:
You can find out more about GTK 3.2 on its official website. From there you can also download the source code and builds for Windows (although the latest build available for Windows is still 2.22)