GTK 3.96 Released As Another Step Closer To GTK 4.0

It's been quite a while since last hearing anything major about the overdue GTK4 tool-kit release but now available is GTK 3.96 as a test version that positions GNOME's tool-kit closer to where they want it for GTK 4.0.

GTK 3.96 brings a number of bug fixes to the GTK Scene Kit (GSK), re-working GDK to use more Wayland-inspired APIs while removing or pushing back the X11-only APIs to its respective back-end, there's been a refactoring of the drag-and-drop support, the introduction of the new GtkLayoutManager widget, other widget changes, and an assortment of other lower-level work.

Among the big elements of GTK4 are continuing to enhance the Wayland support, the introduction of the GSK, reworking the HTML5 Broadway back-end. the introduction of a Vulkan renderer, constraint-based layout support, improved input handling, transformations for widgets, and more.

More details on the GTK 3.96 changes can be found via this GTK.org blog post by Red Hat's Matthias Clasen.