We rewrote the Ghostty GTK application
9 days ago
- #GTK
- #Zig
- #Valgrind
- Ghostty's GTK application was rewritten using the GObject type system from Zig, improving stability and maintainability.
- The rewrite addressed memory management issues by integrating with GObject's reference counting, avoiding bugs related to object lifetimes.
- New features like signals, properties, and actions in GTK are now accessible, simplifying tasks like reloadable configuration.
- Valgrind was used extensively to detect memory issues, revealing bugs in GObject interactions and validating Zig's memory safety.
- The project's success highlights the importance of tooling like Valgrind for C API boundaries, even in memory-safe languages like Zig.
- The rewritten GTK application is now the default in Ghostty's main branch and will be included in the upcoming 1.2 release.