The GTK library developers have announced that they are deprecating the X11 protocol backend and intend to stop supporting X11 in the GTK 5 branch. Despite the deprecation, the GTK 4 branch will continue to support X11 systems.
The desire to get rid of the X11 backend is explained by the cessation of activity on the development of the X11 protocol and problems with maintainers - the backend is supported on a residual basis, since the existing GTK and GNOME developers are focused on Wayland. Due to stagnation in the development of the backend, it slows down the implementation of new features in GTK. In 2022, an attempt was made to find people interested in supporting the X11 protocol in GTK and willing to take on the maintenance of the backend, but none were found.
In addition to X11, the Broadway backend, which allows rendering the GTK library output in a web browser window, and the GtkShortcutsWindow class, which displays a hint on keyboard shortcuts and screen gestures, have been declared obsolete. Instead of GtkShortcutsWindow, they plan to offer a replacement that will be included in the significant autumn release of libadwaita.
Additionally, we can mention the publication of the GTK 4.17.4 release in the 4.17 testing branch, which develops functionality for the future stable branch 4.18. GTK 4.17.4 includes an experimental backend that allows you to run GTK applications on smartphones with the platform. AndroidTo get acquainted with the capabilities of GTK on devices with Android An APK package with a demo mobile application has been prepared.
GTK 4.17.4 removed the rendering engine "gl" that uses OpenGL. Starting with GTK 4.14, the new engine "ngl" is included, which implements an abstraction layer for OpenGL that runs on top of Vulkan. The limitations of the "ngl" engine include the end of support for systems with old drivers and legacy hardware.
Source: opennet.ru
