GTK+ 2.16.0 stable release

GTK+ 2.16 adds new functionality while maintaining source and binary compatibility with GTK+ 2.14. Highlights of new features and improvements in GTK+ 2.16 are:

Noteworthy new APIs

  • GtkOrientable is a new interface implemented by all widgets that have horizontal and vertical variants
  • GtkActivatable is a new interface that must be implemented by widgets that are used as action proxies

Changes in GtkEntry

  • GtkEntry can show icons at either side of the entry, which can be made clickable, drag sources, etc.
  • GtkEntry can show progress information behind the text.
  • GTK+ picks the best available placeholder character for password entries unless one is explicitly set.
  • GTK+ displays a Caps Lock warning in password entries.
  • Input methods can now be selected per-widget with the “im-module” property.

Changes in GtkScale

  • GtkScale can now display annotated marks for certain values.

Changes in GtkStatusIcon

  • GTK+ uses an extension of the tray icon specification to negotiate RGBA support. This is also supported by the GNOME panel.
  • GtkStatusIcon now supports scroll events, middle clicks and rich tooltips if the platform allows it.

Changes in file chooser

  • The file chooser can optionally show file sizes.
  • Volumes are mounted when necessary.
  • GTK+ remembers the file chooser’s window size across invocations.
  • Non-local uris can be entered in the location entry.

Changes in printing support

  • Page rendering can be deferred to a thread.

Internationalization support

  • Keyboard shortcut handling has been changed, to help with a longstanding complaint about the way in which GTK+ handles multiple keyboard layouts. GTK+ now only uses keys from groups other than the current group if they are not present in the current group.

GDK changes

  • GdkKeymap emits a state-changed signal when the Caps Lock state changes.
  • There is a predefined type for blank cursors, GDK_BLANK_CURSOR.

For more details and lists of fixed bugs, see the
announcements for the 2.15.x development releases:

See the original announcement for more info and downloads.

Author: andreasn

GNOME Artist based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Working at Imendio AB.