ANNOUNCE: Gtk2Hs version 0.9.8 released

[Duncan Coutts]

Gtk2Hs - A Haskell GUI library based on the Gtk+ GUI Toolkit.

Version 0.9.8 is now available from:

http://haskell.org/gtk2hs/

Changes since 0.9.7:
      * much greater API coverage, including the new Gtk+ 2.6 APIs
      * Yampa/wxHaskell-style properties added for all widgets
      * improved reference documentation, there is more of it and the
        docs for each module are now split into sections.
      * works with GHC 6.4
      * there is now an easy-to-use installer for Windows
      * build process now works in 80Mb of RAM rather than 380Mb
      * added functions for manipulating Pixbufs using the Haskell
        mutable array interface
      * fixed a limitation on signal handlers on Sparc machines
      * minor API changes
      * minor bug fixes
      * completed GPL to LGPL conversion
      * internal code cleanups and improvements

The API changes are documented here:
http://haskell.org/gtk2hs/archives/2005/06/20/api-changes-between-gtk2hs-097-and-098/

Other changes since the last release announcement:
      * new screenshots, including HRay and HanDict:
        http://haskell.org/gtk2hs/screenshots/
      * we are now included in the Gnome news feed:
        http://planet.gnome.org/news/

Gtk2Hs feature highlights:
      * automatic memory management
      * Unicode support
      * nearly full coverage of Gtk+ 2.6
      * bindings for several Gnome modules:
              * libglade for loading GUIs from xml files at run-time.
                This allows you to design your user interface visually
                with the Glade user interface builder. (This works on
                Windows too.)
              * GConf, Gnome's system for storing app preferences
              * SourceView, code editor widget with syntax highlighting
              * the Mozilla browser rendering engine in a widget
      * API reference documentation
      * multi-platform support with native look
      * LGPL licence

Platforms and requirements: 
      * an installer for Windows is available
      * packages are now available for Fedora Core 3,4 and Gentoo
      * packages for other platforms should become available soon
      * builds from source on Linux, Windows, MacOS X and Solaris
      * builds with GHC 6.4.x, 6.2.x, 6.0.x and 5.04.x
      * works with Gtk+ version 2.0 through to 2.2, 2.4 and 2.6
      * optional Gnome support requires Gnome 2.0 or better
      * optional Mozilla support requires Mozilla 1.4 or better

Goals for the 1.0 release:
      * autumn 2005 release
      * a stable API for the 1.0.x series
      * complete coverage of the Gtk+ API (we're about 90% there now)
      * support for OpenGL 3D rendering API
      * support for cairo 2D rendering API
      * bindings for more Gnome modules
      * introductory and other tutorials
      * packages for all popular platforms

Please report all problems to gtk2hs-users at sourceforge.net
Contributions and feedback are also most welcome.

Duncan