Devhelp

Devhelp is an open source application that provides users with an API documentation browser for the GTK+ widget toolkit and various other core components and applications of the GNOME desktop environment.

Features at a glance

The user interface of the application follows the GNOME HIG (Human Interface Guidelines), which means that it can be easily used by anyone. It’s comprised of a sidebar that lists all the included categories and subcategories, and a large view area where you can navigate the actual documentation.

Among the covered projects, we can mention ATK, Bonobo, Cairomm, Cally, Camel, Cheese, Clutter, D-Bus, Evince, Evolution, GAIL, GIMP, Glade, GMime, GStreamer, GTK+, GtkSourceView, PackageKit, PyGTK, GNOME Shell, Totem, and Vala.

The application is fully compatible with GTK-Doc, which is an API reference framework engineered for GTK+ and used throughout the entire GNOME desktop environment for API documentation. It uses GTK-Doc to generate the documentation.

Designed for GNOME

While it is used to browse the API documentation of GTK+ and GNOME components, the software is not attached to the GNOME desktop environment, as it can be used on any other open source window manager, such as MATE, Cinnamon, LXDE, Xfce or even Openbox and Fluxbox.

Availability and supported OSes

It is distributed as a source archive that can used to configure, compile and install the program in any Linux distribution as long as all requirements are met. However, the application can be easily installed from the default software repositories of your Linux distribution.

While major Linux-based operating systems already include Devhelp, the developers plan to create pre-built versions for Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, in order to help developers to easily deploy GTK+ applications on those platforms.

Bottom line

Devhelp is an extremely useful application designed for both novice and advanced GNOME/GTK+ developers. It is one of the most important projects when developing under the GNOME project.

What is new in this release:

• A few small improvements.
• Translation updates.

What is new in version 3.29.3:

• Devhelp has moved to the GNOME GitLab instance. The bugzilla tickets have not yet been migrated to the GitLab issues, so before filing a new issue on GitLab, please search the bugzilla first. All links are available as usual on: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Devhelp
• Finally write a HACKING file.
• Do not show a GtkInfoBar on error, use the WebKitWebView default implementation to simplify the code.
• Code refactorings: from DhWindow extract DhNotebook, DhSearchBar and bind_sidebar_and_notebook() function, and delegate more work to DhWebView.
• Make the following classes re-usable and move them to the libdevhelp: DhWebView, DhTab, DhTabLabel, DhNotebook and DhSearchBar. And move dh_window_bind_sidebar_and_notebook() to the libdevhelp.
• Flatpak: run Amtk and Devhelp unit tests after building those modules.
• Application icons: rename filenames to org.gnome.Devhelp.*, to simplify the Flatpak manifest.
• Build system: fix the remaining places where the libdevhelp API/major version was hardcoded, use the variable instead, to easily bump it in the future.
• Other small improvements.
• Translation updates.

What is new in version :

• Lots of code refactorings.
• Write first unit test.
• DhLink: use a union inside the struct to use less memory.
• Improve API documentation.
• Some minor bug fixes.
• Translation updates.

What is new in version 3.26.0:

• Updated translations: be, da, eu, fi, hu, it, ko, lt, lv, ne, pt_BR, sk, tr

What is new in version 3.25.1:

• Book tree in the side panel: add context menu with Collapse All action.
• Update GUI when system fonts change.
• Lots of code clean-up and refactorings.
• Clean up the GSettings schema.
• Use GIO to load the index files.
• Several bug fixes in the parser.
• Build system:
• Disable -Werror by default.
• Use git.mk.
• Check for gsettings-desktop-schemas with pkg-config.
• API:
• There has been some API breaks documented in the reference manual, but both Anjuta and gnome-builder should still compile and work fine.
• Several fixes in the GTK-Doc comments and GObject Introspection annotations.
• Improve documentation, write class descriptions for public classes.
• DhBookManager is now a singleton.
• Deprecate dh_link_get_page_name().
• dh_init() now initializes the i18n.
• New function: dh_free_resources().
• Fixed bugs:
• #761292, Book tree in sidebar: add right click -> collapse all
• #775175, Problems with back/forward buttons sensitivity
• #776596, devhelp --search sometimes doesn't jump to symbol
• #782511, Take advantage of Unicode
• Updated translations: be, de, el, hu, id, pl

What is new in version 3.24.0:

• Updated translations: lv

What is new in version 3.22.0 / 3.24.0 Beta 2:

• Fixed bugs:
• #763518, Add sidebar toggler to the menu
• #770785, Add GTK-Doc API reference and GObject Introspection support
• #771503, fix warning in finalize of sidebar
• #773900, Small build system update
• #774069, unable to build devhelp by jhbuild
• #775261, Make DhLanguage a GObject subclass
• Updated translations: cs, de, es, eu, fi, fur, hr, hu, it, kk, nb, pl, pt_BR, sk, sl, sr@latin, sr, sv

What is new in version 3.22.0:

• Updated translations: en_GB, fi, pl, sl

What is new in version 3.20.0 / 3.22.0 Beta 2:

• Updated translations: en_GB, fi, pl, sl

What is new in version 3.19.3:

• Fixed bugs:
• #709658, gedit plugin: too many .plugin files (some generated, some weird)
• #755872, Sometimes a page doesn't get opened
• #756341, Various code improvements and bug fixes
• Updated translations: eu, pt, th, zh_CN

What is new in version 3.16.1:

• Fixed bugs:
• Update list of official developer documentation sites
• #747016, icon: provide a symbolic variant of the app icon

What is new in version 3.14.0 / 3.16.0 Beta 1:

• Fixed bugs:
• #728916, Can't find "_" in the results
• #741806, Added support for XF86Back/XF86Forward keys
• #742447, devhelp crashes with empty documentation file
• #742457, Typo in GSettings conversion file causes gsettings-data-convert to crash
• #742687, DevHelpBookTree is wider when searching
• Updated translations: fi, it, ja, sl, tr

What is new in version 3.14.0:

• Updated translations: da, de, sr@latin, sr, zh_CN

What is new in version 3.14 RC:

• Fixed bugs:
• #735252, libdevhelp: Fix .pc file requires when building with webkit2gtk-4.0
• Updated translations: fi, gl, hu, id, ko, lv, pl, ru, sv, zh_HK, zh_TW

What is new in version 3.14 Beta 1:

• Fixed bugs:
• #734324, Build against webkit2gtk-4.0
• Updated translations:
• as, ca, ca@valencia, cs, eu, fi, fr, lt, nb

What is new in version 3.13.4:

• Fixed bugs:
• #724098, center tab labels
• #724538, Use popver for the gear menu
• #727064, Use headerbar in the preference dialog
• #730445, Expand tabs in the pref dialog
• #730723, window: Allow Shift-Return to previous find
• #730772, Use the new support for RTL icons in GtkIconTheme
• #732897, Use view-context-menu-symbolic for the gear menu
• Updated translations:
• ca, ca@valencia, el, es, he, pt_BR, sl

What is new in version 3.12.1:

• Updated translation: eu

What is new in version 3.12.0:

• Updated translations: da, id, pt, sl

What is new in version 3.12 RC1:

• Updated translations: fi, fr, ko, lv, pl, ru, sr@latin, sr, zh_CN

What is new in version 3.11.4:

• Fixed bugs:
• #712183, about devhelp, wrong URL
• #720167, App menu: standardize Help/About/Quit
• #720948, Add "sidebar" style class to the sidebar
• Updated translations: ca, ca@valencia, cs, el, es, gl, he, it, pt_BR, sl, zh_CN

What is new in version 3.10.2:

• Updated translations: ca, ca@valencia, de, el

What is new in version 3.10.0:

• Fixed bugs:
• #707490, [PATCH] Don't use AM_GNU_GETTEXT
• Updated translations: as, be, da, fi, he, id, ja, ko, lv, ru, sk, sr@latin, sr, th

What is new in version 3.10 Beta 2:

• Fixed bugs:
• #700588, Error regarding gsetting schema when gsettings-data-convert starts
• #706498, Typo in the last devhelpA's POT File
• Updated translations:
• cs, es, fr, gl, he, hu, it, lt, nb, pl, pt_BR, sl, zh_HK, zh_TW

What is new in version 3.10 Beta 1:

• Ignacio Casal Quinteiro ported devhelp to GtkHeaderBar, GtkSearchBar, and more.
• Fixed bugs:
• #700588, Error regarding gsetting schema when gsettings-data-convert starts
• Updated translations: it, lt, pt_BR, zh_HK, zh_TW
• Many thanks to all contributors: Milo Casagrande, Ignacio Casal Quinteiro, Rafael Ferreira, Piotr DrA...g, Baptiste Mille-Mathias, Aurimas AŒernius, Chao-Hsiung Liao

What is new in version 3.9.5:

• Fixed bugs:
• #703609, Set button arrow icons according to locale's text direction
• #704752, Make window a template and other stuff
• #704805, The notebook in the preferences does not expand properly

What is new in version 3.9.4:

• Fixed bugs:
• #665531, devhelp: change ShowSearchTab key to ctrl+K
• #695758, Ctrl+F/Ctrl+S don't focus the search entry
• #696922, Tabs should be reorderable
• #700430, .pc uses WEBKITGTK_PC_NAME which is no longer defined
• Updated translations: cs, es, eu, gl, he, hu, ml, nb, ru, sl
• Many thanks to all contributors: BalAzs Asr, Kjartan Maraas, Carlos Garcia Campos, Ignacio Casal Quinteiro, Fran DiAguez, Javier JardA³n, Matej UrbanAiA, Yuri Myasoedov, Daniel Mustieles, Yosef Or Boczko, Adam Dingle, Marek AŒernockA½, Arnel A. Borja, Yaron Shahrabani, Anish A, Aleksander Morgado

What is new in version 3.8.2:

• Fixed bugs:
• disconnect signals when preferences dialog is shutdown
• Updated translations: ru
• Many thanks to all contributors: Dmitriy S. Seregin, Aleksander Morgado

What is new in version 3.8.1:

• Fixed bugs:
• #697026, font size is too small by default and don't match system font size
• #697541, changing preferences crashes/fails after closing one of multiple windows
• Many thanks to all contributors: Carlos Garcia Campos, Ignacio Casal Quinteiro, Aleksander Morgado

What is new in version 3.8.0:

• Fixed bugs:
• #695455, gedit-plugin: Set loader to python3
• #696367, devhelp's gschema crashes gsettings tool
• Updated translations: as, be, da, el, et, fa, fi, fr, hu, ko, pt_BR, pt, tg
• Many thanks to all contributors: BalAzs Asr, Changwoo Ryu, Mattias PAµldaru, Dimitris Spingos, Alexandre Franke, Thomas Bechtold, Ville-Pekka Vainio, Victor Ibragimov, Arash Mousavi, Ask H. Larsen, Ihar Hrachyshka, Duarte Loreto, Nilamdyuti Goswami, Enrico Nicoletto, Jeremy Bicha, Aleksander Morgado

What is new in version 3.7.91:

• Fixed bugs:
• #569021, header links don't jump to correct point in text
• #600309, impossible or very cumbersome to navigate from keyboard
• #640567, Error shown when changing books/pages too fast
• #665531, devhelp: change ShowSearchTab key to ctrl+K
• #671907, Do not use custom marshallers
• #673320, Nodes in side tree should not expand on focus
• #693237, Syntax errors in the desktop file
• Updated translations: ca, ca@valencia, cs, de, el, gl, it, lt, nb, nl, pl, sl, sr@latin, sr, th, ug

What is new in version 3.7.5:

• This release sees a revamp of the UI according to match GNOME 3 applications, thanks to the work of Aleksander Morgado and Thomas Bechtold during the developer experience hackfest in Brussels.
• Fixed bugs:
• #569021, header links don't jump to correct point in text
• #646402, [patch] port devhelp to gsettings
• #664080, Window title not updated when opening pages using search
• #671907, Do not use custom marshallers
• #679955, Use search entry for search entries
• #679956, Would be nice not to have to switch a tab to search
• #688955, Font selection does nothing
• #690599, memory leaks
• #690980, port to python3
• #692242, libdevhelp: Remove dh_init() from header since it doesn't exist anymore.
• #692732, assistant-view: don't reference DhApplication
• #693017, Navigation back/forward seems broken with webkit2
• #693023, libdevhelp: Fix .pc file "Requires" when building with webkitgtk2
• Updated translations: bg, el, es, gl, he, it, lt, nb, pl, sr@latin, sr, ug, zh_HK, zh_TW

What is new in version 3.6.1:

• Updated translations: Latvian, Slovak, Malayalam, Estonian
• Fix Ctrl-C to copy

What is new in version 3.4.0:

• Fixed bugs:
• #671256, Fix compilation warnings with -Wunused-but-set-variable
• Updated translations: ar, as, fa, fi, fr, it, km, ko, lv, pt, uk

What is new in version 3.2.0:

• Fixed bugs:
• #592897, window is reused only if on the current page
• #646399, [patch] remove unused PLATFORM_{C,LD}FLAGS
• #646400, [patch] remove dead GTK+ code
• #646962, Doesn't build on Mac OS/Quartz
• #650542, Some small UI tweaks
• Updated translations: ast, ca@valencia, en_CA, eo, es, eu, fi, ja, lt

What is new in version 3.0.0:

• Updated translations: da, de, it, lv, pt_BR, sk, sr@latin, sr, ug

What is new in version 2.91.92:

• Fixed bugs:
• #644221, window: set the style class before adding to the parent box
• Updated translations: de, en_GB, pl, ro, sk, sq

What is new in version 2.91.91.2:

• Fixed bugs:
• partial update for gtk-style-context, some deprecated functions are still being used.

What is new in version 2.91.90:

• Fixed bugs: #642002, [PATCH] port gedit plugin to GObject Introspection and latest
• GEdit
• Updated translations: ar, bg, ca, el, eo, es, fa, fr, gl, ko, nl, ru, ug, uk, zh_HK, zh_TW

What is new in version 2.91.5:

• Fixed bugs:
• #638748, Adapt to new multi backend GTK+
• #638761, Add ellipsize to search combo
• Updated translations: cs, es, et, gl, id, nb, sl, sv, ug, zh_CN
• Many thanks to all contributors: Andika Triwidada, Aron Xu, Jorge Gonzalez, Ivar Smolin, Daniel Nylander, Fran Dieguez, Matej Urbancic, Kjartan Maraas, Gheyret T.Kenji, Marek Cernocky', Matthias Clasen, Johannes Schmid

What is new in version 2.91.4:

• Fixed bugs:
• #90469, Search function to allow selecting books for search
• #349608, Monitor books and update when they change
• #353108, Search by language
• #601201, [PATCH] inadequate search result ordering
• #633834, L10N: msgid "Enabled"
• #635162, Devhelp won't build due to the new GApplication API
• #636339, Fix default value for list type key
• state/main/contents/books_disabled
• #636933, [PATCH] Crash when closing the preferences dialog with the
• titlebar close button
• Updated translations: et, he, th, zh_HK, zh_TW

What is new in version 2.30.1:

• Updated translations: ca@valencia, en@shaw, eo, fr, gl, hy, id, nl, sl, sq, ug
• Many thanks to all contributors: Kristjan Schmidt, Laurent Dhima, Andika Triwidada, Gheyret Kenji, noch, Wouter Bolsterlee, Fran Dieguez, Matej Urbancic, Claude Paroz, Thomas Thurman, Carles Ferrando

Requirements:

• GNOME
• Gtkmozembed