Re: Gtk+4.0

[Chris Vine <chris cvine freeserve co uk>]

On Sun, 14 Aug 2016 13:40:55 +0200
Sébastien Wilmet <swilmet gnome org> wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 12, 2016 at 04:19:30AM +0000, philip chimento gmail com
> wrote:
> > 4. Maintainers of libraries that depend on GTK (such as
> > GtkSourceView, VTE, WebKitGTK) are concerned about having to
> > maintain essentially a separate library for each unstable release.  
>
> When GTK+ breaks the API, it doesn't mean that a higher-level library
> needs to break API too. For example, GtkTextView has a quite stable
> API, so I think GtkSourceView will still have a stable API too, to
> keep backward compatibility during GtkSourceView 4.

However, if your application depends on two GTK-based libraries, the
developers for one of which proceed to adopt a development path using
unstable GTK versions and one where they stick to stable, surely you
are doomed?  Likewise if the two libraries decide to adopt different
stable versions (not impossible with a two-year cycle for stable
releases).