As Murray blogged about earlier, the API for all the *mm projects is frozen until the next release cycle. I think we got all of Glib and Gtk+ wrapped this time around and we fixed some things in Gconfmm (setting lists).
I have updated Coaster to use the new API such as Gtk::AboutDialog, Gtk::FileChooserButton, the ellipsize properties of labels and Gtk::CellRendererText’s, and I have created a history combobox (much like GnomeEntry) for the find dialog. This means that Coaster will depend on Gtkmm >= 2.5.5 and Gconfmm >= 2.9.2. I also updated my wrappers on nautilus-cd-burn to the new 2.9.4 API. I should have a release out by tomorrow, but, if you know my record on releases, don’t hold your breath 
.
I thought I had plenty of time to commit changes for the upcoming Gtkmm API/ABI freeze, but a snowstorm in eastern Iowa has put me in a rush. Luckily, Murray and I were on the same page and most of the changes I had were already done by the time I could get out of the pile of snow we were under.
Unfortunately, since I’ve been concentrating on Gtkmm’s freeze, I’ve had to neglect Coaster. This isn’t all that bad because I’ve decided to hold off on releasing the next version of Coaster until next Tuesday because I’m going to depend on the frozen version of Gtkmm. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem since Coaster is still in development . Once gtkmm hits 2.6, packages should be made. You can also use jhbuild to get it up and running.
That’s right, last night was laundry night, but really, for Coaster, it was all weekend. I cleaned up the icon changing stuff. I now have a program-wide Gtk::IconTheme and Gnome::UI::ThumbnailFactory which store Gdk::Pixbuf refptrs into a std::map for quick lookup. It actually works pretty slick. I’ll get it uploaded as soon as harshy gets our arch repo (which I screwed up) fixed. Hopefully that’ll be within the next few days.
Speaking of harshy, he uploaded new screenshots which were made of the latest Coaster using gtkmm 2.4.
The remainder of this week should be spent working on more fixups for Coaster’s GUI as well as finding a reception spot for my wedding in August and a hotel for that night. Finding a honeymoon suite in Omaha, NE online is harder than you think (or maybe I’m just looking in the wrong spots).
I’m really excited because the upcoming GNOME Platform Bindings release on April 5th April 12th. Murray has all the tarballs ready to go for the release candidate, he’s just waiting on the GNOME servers to get back up to normal after the little fiasco we had last week.
With these releases and the solidification of Bakery on the UIManager API, I will start porting and uploading my changes to Coaster’s arch for the user interface. Murray and I have worked hard over the last few weeks to get Bakery to use the UIManager sanely. I think it’s turned out quite well and I am quite pleased with it. Hopefully we can get a new release out soon after the Gtkmm releases.
Gtkmm is shaping up nicely, except for one thing: ever since we have been working on getting sigc++2, glibmm, and gtkmm to compile with Sun’s Forte compiler and gcc 3.4, we’ve run into problem after problem. First, it was the latest gnome-vfsmm release not compiling against the latest glibmm release (2.3.7); I downgraded and it was fine. Now, gtkmm’s gtk-demo won’t compile; it dies with a really strange error and this error didn’t come up until we started messing with Forte and 3.4 compiling. I’m completely baffled and I hope Murray knows what to do.
On a lighter note, I’ve started porting Coaster to the new Gtk::Action and Gtk::UIManager API. It’s a very nice API and should add to the ease of development for the GNOME Desktop. In porting Coaster to Gtkmm 2.4, I’ve found that Bakery and Bakery_GnomeUI need to be ported to use the FileChooser and Bakery_GnomeUI needs to be ported to the new Toolbar API. Looks like I have my work cut out for me .
Yes, that’s right, Coaster. The GNOME CD burning application that harshy, I, and company (everyone that’s in #coaster on irc.gimp.org) are working on. Development will now resume on it since Gtkmm 2.4 is under API freeze. This next week (while I’m away) I’m going to work on getting Coaster to use bakery 2.4 and bakery_gnomeui 2.0 (both use *mm 2.4/2.6). This is exciting because the guys at breakmygentoo.net are excited about Coaster and can’t wait to see the finished product. Hopefully I’ll have something to put into arch at the end of spring break.
Ok, so I had forgotten just how much I had contributed to gtkmm new release. It feels good to actually accomplish something.
After pushing back API freeze twice (or was it three times…), we finally have a frozen API. This is great and I feel a sense of accomplishment with this release. Murray has done a great job with this release and helped me through my mistakes with some of the new API, but I guess he’s glad I helped. I’m kind of disappointed we couldn’t get the STL API working for Gtk::Toolbar, but I think the new API is better (I hope that’s not a sin to say that).
The other huge thing we accomplished was the move to libsigc++2. The syntax is cleaner and easier to use.
Vfsmm turned out pretty spiffy as well. The Volume, Drive, and VolumeMonitor idea is awesome and I can’t wait to see what the developers have in store for GNOME 2.6.
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