GTK 4 porting roadmap

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The design team is keen to make sure that we don’t end up in a situation where we only have odd core apps using GTK 4 in GNOME 42. With this in mind, I’ve asked around to see what maintainers’ plans are for GTK 4 porting.

So far I’ve only covered what I consider to be the most common and/or significant core apps: Files, Software, Settings, Videos, Image Viewer, Document Viewer, Terminal, Screenshot, Calculator, Text Editor.

Based on those conversations, of these 10 apps, the likelihood of a GTK 4 port for GNOME 42 is possibly something like this:

  • Very likely: 2 (Text Editor, Software)
  • Likely: 4 (Files, Calculator, Screenshot, Image Viewer)
  • Uncertain: 1 (Settings)
  • Not going to happen: 3 (Videos, Document Viewer, Terminal)

This assessment is based on the idea that Text Editor will replace gedit, and that Chris’s new image viewer will replace eog. It may also be possible to drop Screenshot from core, if we get the in-shell replacement in time.

To me, GTK 4 for GNOME 42 looks doable but risky. But then, at this point, it would probably be hard to back out at this point: Text Editor is already GTK 4, and the Software port is well on its way.

From a UX perspective, having Files and Settings ports for 42 would really help. The biggest concern is probably Evince, Totem and Terminal, all of which are looking a long way off, and could leave us in an position where the port is in an obvious transitional state for what could be years.

Assuming we do push the GTK 4 migration for GNOME 42, then there are some steps we should take, such as making sure that the necessary dependencies (libadwaita, webkitgtk, libgweather) are available early in the cycle, and communicating the porting plan to the community.

Thoughts?

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I’m less worried about Videos and Terminal: those are very “low chrome” apps, so even if they don’t look up to date it isn’t going to be tragic; I care more about the video or the console than I care about the menus or buttons. Totem, on top of the mere GTK4 port, has also to drop a bunch of legacy components at the same time, which increases the effort.

Evince has been low on maintenance for a while, so I guess we should try and help Germán out, and possibly find new co-maintainers. I’d be happy to help with the review of the GTK4 port, though I can’t guarantee I’m going to be able to pick up maintenance as well.

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We have been talking about kgx as an alternative terminal. We could revisit that discussion for 42.

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14 posts were split to a new topic: Evince and security

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For kgx, one of the concerns was having light mode support. Now that Alexander put new infrastructure for supporting those color schemes in place, I plan on tackling that this week.

There’s a WIP port for GTK4, but there are things to work out both with KGX itself and VTE for it to be ready.

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Next steps here are to post a plan and advice for developers, and chase up dependencies that are needed. Is this something that the release team wants to take on? I can help out if needed.

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