Recently the launch of the new version of the Cambalache 0.8.0 project was announced, which stands out for developing a rapid interface development tool for GTK 3 and GTK 4, using the MVC paradigm and the philosophy of the primary importance of the data model.
Unlike Glade, Cambalache provides support for maintaining multiple user interfaces in a single project. In terms of functionality, the Cambalache 0.8.0 release is marked close to parity with Glade.
About Cambalache
Swap it is independent of GtkBuilder and GObject, but it provides a data model that conforms to the GObject type system. The data model can import and export multiple interfaces at once, supports GtkBuilder objects, properties and signals, provides an Undo / Redo stack and the ability to compress command history. The cambalache-db utility is provided to generate the data model from gir files and the db-codegen utility is provided to generate GObject classes from the data model tables.
The interface can be generated based on GTK 3 and GTK 4, depending on the version defined in the project. To provide support for different GTK branches, the workspace is formed using the Broadway backend, which allows you to draw the output of the GTK library in a web browser window. The main Cambalache process provides a WebKit-based WebView binding that Broadway uses to stream the output of the Merengue process, which is directly involved in rendering the user-generated interface.
Main news of Cambalache 0.8.0
In the new version of Cambalache 0.8.0 it is highlighted that added a panel for interactive selection of objects, It categorizes object classes and makes it easy to find the necessary information.
In addition to this, it is highlighted that a number of workspace placeholders have been implemented to facilitate the addition of children to certain positions and that also allow you to add a widget instead of a placeholder by double clicking on it.
Another change that was added in the new version is the sSupport for translatable properties and he implemented the ability to leave comments for translators.
On the other hand, it is mentioned that added support for clipboard operations (Copy, Paste, Cut and Delete) and also the improved display of information about unsupported functions when importing UI files and when exporting to another file
Finally, for those interested in knowing more about it You can check the details of the project In the following link. While for those who are interested in being able to take a look at the Cambalache code, they can do so. from the link below. It is also important to mention that the project code is written in Python and is available under the GPLv2 license.
Get Cambalache
For those who are interested in being able to work with this tool, they should know that There are two ways to have it in your system, one of them is downloading the source code of Cambalache and with which it is not necessary to install the tool, while the other option and which I think is much more comfortable is with the help of Flatpak packages. It is also important to mention that it is worth mentioning that Python must be installed.
In the first case and that does not require installation is by downloading the source code of the tool. This we can do opening a terminal and in it we are going to type the following command:
git clone https://gitlab.gnome.org/jpu/cambalache.git
Now, in order to run the tool, just type:
./run-dev.py
Finally as for the other method is that it is with the help of Flatpak packages, We only have to have the support to be able to install this type of package in the system and all we have to do is open a terminal and run the following commands:
flatpak-builder --force-clean --repo=repo build ar.xjuan.Cambalache.json flatpak build-bundle repo cambalache.flatpak ar.xjuan.Cambalache flatpak install --user cambalache.flatpak