GTK+OSX is a native Mac OS X port of the Linux-based GTK+ open source graphical user interface library. GTK+ (GIMP Toolkit) is a widget library supporting graphical applications for Linux.
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GTK+OSX version 0.1 is an alpha release intended for developers. It was originally developed to support GIMP. GTK+ is used in Film Gimp and many other applications. Film Gimp is an open source tool for feature motion picture work. (Gimp is an open source alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Film Gimp extends Gimp to operate on a series of images — with a frame manager — and in 16-bit linear or floating point color depths.)
GTK+OSX is a spin-off from the Film Gimp project. GTK+ is utilized by Film Gimp and many other Linux programs including those of GNU and GNOME. GTK+OSX is being developed as the underpinnings for a native Aqua-based Mac OS X port of Film Gimp that’s due in the second quarter of the year.
“As soon as we released the Fink-based version of Film Gimp we began looking for ways to port natively to Mac OS X,” said Robin Rowe, GTK+OSX project manager and release manager for Film Gimp. “[GTK+OSX lead developer] Andy Prock and I began researching different ways of doing that, either switching to another toolkit or making GTK+ run directly on Aqua.”
Prock is also the Mac port lead for Film Gimp. He said: “My curiosity got the better of me. I discovered an abandoned GTK+ for OS 9 Sourceforge project called gtk-mac, and that became the basis for GTK+OSX.”
GTK+ has not been available running natively on Macintosh, although Mac Film Gimp and other GTK+ applications run on the Mac using Fink and the XDarwin X server, a technology that enables X Windows programs to run on the Mac. The overhead and complexity in running two graphics interfaces — Aqua and X Windows — makes is desirable to have GTK+ run natively on Mac Aqua without X, according to Rowe. GTK+OSX is a free download.