java-gnome 4.0.8 (10 Aug 2008) ============================== _Cleanups and bug fixes._ While this release is mostly to push out bug fixes and internal improvements, we've also taken the opportunity to introduce a major change to the way we connect handlers for signals. New coverage and continuing improvement --------------------------------------- With thanks to new contributors Stefan Prelle and Andreas Kuehntopf we have a number of small improvements to the TreeView/TreeModel APIs. * **`org.gnome.gtk.TreeView`** * **`org.gnome.gtk.TreeViewColumn`** * **`org.gnome.gtk.TreeViewColumnSizing`** * **`org.gnome.gtk.CellRendererText`** * **`org.gnome.gtk.CellRendererToggle`** As always, Widget and Window saw a bunch of work, with `Window.ConfigureEvent` now being available and a number of additional property setters and methods relating to window type. * **`org.gnome.gdk.WindowTypeHint`** * **`org.gnome.gtk.Widget`** * **`org.gnome.gtk.Window`** Error handling continues to improve. In the (hand written) public API wrapper layer we do our best to catch misuses of the library before they get sent to the native code. But that's not always possible, and in 4.0.7 we introduced a mechanism whereby GLib error messages get translated into Java Exceptions and thrown. In 4.0.8, in addition to `ERROR` and `CRITICAL`, `WARNING`s are also thrown as Exceptions. Getting a stack trace this way has proved very useful in helping developers track down where they are making mistakes in using the library. Build changes ------------- java-gnome now defines C compiler flags like `GTK_DISABLE_DEPRECATED` to ensure we are not linking against code that will be unavailable in GTK 3.0. Many thanks are due to new contributor Kenneth Prugh for having done some terrific grunt work to remove deprecated classes and methods from our `.defs` data so that java-gnome compiles without using these APIs. Documentation, examples, and testing ------------------------------------ Our [API documentation](doc/api/overview-summary.html) and the growing set of [example code](doc/examples/START.html) have all been updated to reflect the new signal interface names. Conclusion ---------- You can see the full changes accompanying a release by grabbing a copy of the sources and running: $ bzr diff -r tag:v4.0.7..tag:v4.0.8 Because of the API changes to signal handling this release touches just about every public class in the library and so isn't quite as clean (as a summary) as in previous releases -- but it does tell you everything `:)`. Looking ahead ------------- Most of the contributors to java-gnome are working on branches that didn't reach sufficient maturity to be merged in time for 4.0.8; that's the way it goes sometimes. That said, major effort continues on implementing coverage of GTK's powerful TextView/TextBuffer APIs, along with further drawing capabilities in Cairo and Pango. There have also been a surprising level of interest on other areas of the GNOME stack, with new contributors working on adding support to java-gnome for Nautilus, GStreamer, and even WebKit! Exciting stuff. AfC Signal API change ================= We have changed the naming scheme used to name the interfaces that are used when hooking up signal handlers. Connecting a handler to a Button now looks as follows: 
b.connect(new Button.Clicked() {
    public void onClicked(Button source) {
        // do stuff
    }
});
Those developing with java-gnome will recognize that the inner interface's name has changed to `Button.Clicked`, being more appropriate to Java type naming conventions and providing better consistency between the signal name, the method to be implemented, `onClicked()`, and the method that can be used to emit this signal, `emitClicked()`. The process which led to this change was discussed on the `java-gnome-hackers` mailing list; see first [message][] if interested. [message]: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnome.bindings.java.devel/1147 Interfaces with the old names and corresponding `connect()` methods are still present in the library (marked `@deprecated`, of course, and with assertions to encourage developers to migrate their code) so the upcoming release will preserve ABI compatibility. The [documentation](/4.0/doc/api/overview-summary.html) posted here has been updated and a [release candidate][rc] has been uploaded. [rc]: http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/java-gnome/4.0/java-gnome-4.0.8-rc1.tar.bz2 AfC