Moving Raku to GTK 4.0

Summer of Code Project Ideas

Moving Raku to GTK 4.0

Description

Raku has a module called GTK::Simple that binds to a small number of GTk-3 widgets in a Raku-ish manner. GTK-4 has just been released and the goal is to enhance GTK::Simple to use the GTK-4 libraries. GTK::Simple does not have all GTK-3 bindings, so the transfer to GTK-4 should be straight-forward.

Expected outcomes

  • Complete the steps (if any) in the migration guide to prepare GTK::Simple:api<3> for GTK::Simple:api<4>
  • Locate the most uptodate dll files for GTK-3 for Windows, and ensure that GTK::Simple:api<3> works in Linux, Windows and Mac (CI testing environments). Currently only a Linux testing environment is specified.
  • A first draft of GTK::Simpe:api<4> that verifies the existence of the gtk-4 libraries, and implements the existing widgets.
  • Stretch goals
    • implement more gtk-4 bindings, perhaps using software to create bindins directly from gtk-4 documentation.
    • implement for Raku a demo program showing the use of available widgets like gtk-demo.

Required skills

Students will need to be able to read and interpret software documentation, such as the documentation accompanying GTK-4. This is a vital skill for any good software engineer, and this task will have an educational benefit far beyond Raku or GTK.

Students will need to have or acquire an understanding of enough C to use Raku’s NativeLibs interface to the GTK-4 library. The process is far simpler than in many other languages.

Students will need/acquire an understanding of the Raku language.

Students will need a solid understanding of the OS they use. GTK3 is important in Linux distributions, and GTK4 is still considered experimental. The GTK development documentation states that GTK3 and GTK4 can be both be installed and run on the same mmachine, though a ‘flatpak’ installation is recommended.

Rating

Medium. Some parts of this task will be easy, some will take quite a lot of time (eg., the GTK libraries are large).

Possible mentors

Richard Hainsworth, aka finanalyst. richard@hainsworth.wales Currently the maintainer of GTK::Simple.