GtkInspector Now Supports Dealing With Multiple Back-Ends For GTK

Matthias Clasen did some weekend hacking to allow GtkInspector to work across different display connections, e.g. debugging a GTK application running in Wayland while GtkInspector is running under X11 or the HTML5 Broadway back-end.

Clasen managed with his weekend hack to get things working with GTK3 demo running under X11 while the GtkInspector was running with the HTML5 Broadway back-end inside Firefox. While GtkInspector isn't used by many, this is an interesting feat on a technical level and is likely the first implementation of a GTK+ application using multiple GDK back-ends simultaneously.

In an update Clasen shared he was then able to get the GtkInspector running as an X11 application while displaying under Wayland.

It's an interesting feat at a time when features are piling on for GTK+ 3.16 -- even GTK+ Mir support. GtkInspector was introduced in GNOME 3.14 as an integrated debugger for the GTK+ tool-kit.