Giraffe Library Releases

To install the latest library release, see the Quick Setup instructions. For more detailed instructions, see the Setup Guide. For previous releases, see the README and INSTALL files provided with the release.

1.0.0-alpha.13 (2025-09-20)

Release packages

Changes since release 1.0.0-alpha.12

  • Enhancements

    • Improved memory management:

      • SML signal handler functions are changed to help avoid reference cycles involving GObject instances, which can prevent unreachable GObject instances from being destroyed.

      • SML finalization of unreachable GObject instances no longer assumes GObject destruction is thread-safe, avoiding potential failures.

    • Added function GLib.MainContext.invoke.

    • Added support for GObject weak references. A new special structure Weak provides a type-safe interface to GObject weak references. The new structure GObject.WeakRef provides the API from the GIR metadata.

    • Improved debugging diagnostic output that reports all memory operations.

    • Combined debug environment variables into one called GIRAFFE_DEBUG.

    • Makefile uses DESTDIR as the prefix for each installed target file, to support staged installs.

    • The configure utility no longer accepts --prefix with a relative path argument.

  • Breaking changes

    • SML signal handler functions take the object instance that emits the signal as an additional curried argument. This argument should be used to refer to the emitting object in the handler function to avoid reference cycles involving foreign objects. For more information, see the User Guide section on Memory Management. The introduction of the new argument requires every handler function to be updated, which will be identified by type checking failures where the handler function is used as an argument of new argument of [Child]Signal.connect[After].

    • SML finalization (and, possibly, destruction) of GObject instances found unreachable by GC no longer occurs asynchronously unless explicitly enabled. This can be enabled by evaluating 

      Giraffe.Finalize.enableAsyncInContext NONE NONE

      typically, before the default main context is run. Existing code will continue to compile and run without asynchronous SML finalization. For more information, see the User Guide section on Memory Management.

    • The module ValueAccessor is no longer included with the GObject namespace. The (identical) module ValueAccessor is still included with the GLib namespace and this must now be used. This may require a dependency on glib-2.0 to be added in MLB files.

    • The structures GC, GiraffeLog and GiraffeDebug no longer exist at the top-level and have been moved inside the structure Giraffe as follows:

      GC

      →

      Giraffe.GC

      GiraffeLog

      →

      Giraffe.Log

      GiraffeDebug

      →

      Giraffe.Debug

      Existing references to these structures may need to be changed as above.

    • GLib.Source.t constructor functions take a callback function argument. In C, g_source_set_callback is used to set the callback function of a source after it has been created. The type of the callback function varies so this API cannot be carried over to SML whilst maintaining type safety. The SML functions that construct a new kind of source now take the callback function for the source. The signature G_LIB now specifies: 

      val childWatchSourceNew : Pid.t * ChildWatchFunc.t -> SourceRecord.t
val idleSourceNew : SourceFunc.t -> SourceRecord.t
val timeoutSourceNew : LargeInt.int * SourceFunc.t -> SourceRecord.t
val timeoutSourceNewSeconds : LargeInt.int * SourceFunc.t -> SourceRecord.t

      Previously, these functions were effectively useless because a callback could not be set after a source was created, so this change should not affect existing code.

    • MLton 20130715 no longer supported.

  • Bug fixes

    • MLton-specific fixes:

      • The MLton import attribute reentrant is specified by default in bindings to API functions because the SML runtime can be re-entered via a callback for most API functions.

    • Fixed include paths in supporting C library files that caused a build failure on some platforms.

    • Fixed dependence on GDesktopAppInfo in supporting C library files causing a build failure on some platforms.

    • Fixed memory management issue causing occasional failure when using an object via an asIface function.

    • Remove suggested C compiler option -std=c99 in MLton build documentation as this may causes compilation with MLton to fail on some platforms.

1.0.0-alpha.12 (2021-11-28)

Release packages

Changes since release 1.0.0-alpha.11

  • Changed function names in the module Signal to align with GIR metadata:

    Signal.disconnect

    →

    Signal.handlerDisconnect

    Signal.isConnected

    →

    Signal.handlerIsConnected

  • Changed type names in the module Signal:

    Signal.id

    →

    Signal.handler_id

  • Poly/ML 5.8.2 supported. Note that Poly/ML >= 5.8.2 does not use libffi.

  • Poly/ML-specific changes:

    • Dynamic linking used for versions of Poly/ML >= 5.8. Earlier versions do not support dynamic linking and dynamic loading is still used.

  • MLton-specific changes:

    • Added deadCode annotation to MLB files to reduce compilation times.

  • Updated internal representation of C size types to avoid unnecessary internal conversions and checks. This representation is compatible with LLP64 systems (such as Windows 64 bit). Also, this reduces the size of binaries, significantly for Poly/ML.

  • Added support for specifying signal detail.

  • Added support for emitting a signal.

  • Added support for blocking and unblocking a signal handler.

  • Added signal conversion function Signal.conv to convert a signal of an interface to a signal of a class or interface that implements the interface.

  • Fixed loss of property type safety where SML type checking did not ensure that access to a property was allowed only for an object with the property.

1.0.0-alpha.11 (2021-02-10)

Release packages

Changes since release 1.0.0-alpha.10

  • Changed functions [Child]Signal.connect[After] to take signal and handler arguments as a pair, e.g. Signal.connect obj (aSig, handlerFun).

  • Renamed signature UTF8 to UTF_8

  • MLton 20180207 supported, retaining support for MLton 20130715 by applying the following changes to versions after 20130715:

    • Specified import attribute reentrant as required to avoid seg. faults.

    • Added valrecConstr ignore annotation to MLB files to avoid warnings.

  • Updated library versions:

    GLib 2.0

    2.66.4

    GIRepository 2.0

    1.66.1

    Atk 1.0

    2.36.0

    Pango 1.0

    1.48.0

    GdkPixbuf 2.0

    2.40.0

    GTK 3.0

    3.24.24

    GtkSourceView 3.0

    3.24.11

    Vte 2.91

    0.62.1

  • Added Cairo.Context functions except functions involving the C types cairo_rectangle_list_t and cairo_path_t.

  • Fixed Giraffe.exit to release ownership of C objects and memory on exit.

  • Improved installation:

    • Source files installed for only requested compilers.

1.0.0-alpha.10 (2020-11-23)

Release packages

Changes since release 1.0.0-alpha.9

  • Fixed build for GLib >= 2.62.0.

  • Updated configure script to check for MLton include directory under lib64.

1.0.0-alpha.9 (2020-11-15)

Release packages

Changes since release 1.0.0-alpha.8

  • Updated representation of properties, which changes the way properties are accessed as follows:

    #get aProp

    →

    Property.get aProp

    #set aProp

    →

    Property.set aProp

    #new aProp

    →

    Property.init aProp

  • Added bind functions to the module Property that provide a type-safe interface for binding properties.

  • Added support for accessing fields of a record.

  • Added support for constructing value-like records: for a value-like record R with no private fields, a function R.new is generated if no function of the same name already exists.

  • SML type for a non-string C array type made abstract as follows:

    • For each C array type, where the SML type of the C element type is Elem.t, the following modules are declared if referenced:

      structure ElemCArray : C_ARRAY

      structure ElemCArrayN : C_ARRAY_N

      structure ElemCPtrArray : C_ARRAY

      structure ElemCPtrArrayN : C_ARRAY_N

    • The abstract SML type is ElemC[Ptr]Array[N].t and represents a C array as follows:

      C array

      size

      zero terminated

      separate parameter

      elements

      packed inline

      ElemCArray.t

      ElemCArrayN.t

      referenced by a pointer

      ElemCPtrArray.t

      ElemCPtrArrayN.t

    (The change in array representation avoids performance issues with large arrays by allowing the internal representation to be a C array allocated on the C heap that is not necessarily converted to/from an SML value.)

  • SML type for C integer types gsize and gssize changed from LargeInt.int to int.

  • Added a function that returns the instance type to root classes:

    • GObject.ObjectClass.instanceType

    • GObject.ParamSpecClass.instanceType

  • Removed bespoke version of GLib.childWatchSourceNew that was added manually.

  • Fixed introspection metadata for the following functions, which now return an optional value:

    • Gio.InetAddress.newFromString

    • Gio.InetSocketAddress.newFromString

  • Fixed introspection metadata for the following functions, which now return a new buffer:

    • GLib.IOChannel.readChars

    • Gio.InputStream.read

  • Added module Giraffe with functions exit and error.

  • Updated top-level function use to support references to environment variables using the notation $(var) for the value of var.

  • Updated code generation to use nullable attribute of 'out' and 'inout' arguments to determine whether an optional type is used. With the exception of arrays with a size parameter or fixed size zero (which may be null when empty), an optional type is used iff nullable is specified.

  • Poly/ML-specific changes:

    • A callback no longer leaks memory. (A closure, which cannot be freed, is now allocated for each callback type only, not for each callback instance, following the approach already used for MLton.)

  • Fixed an unlikely but theoretically possible issue where memory for a function argument could be freed immediately on returning from the function call (because the last use of the memory was for the function argument) but some of the memory is referenced in the value passed back from an 'out' or 'inout' argument and needs to be copied after returning from the call.

1.0.0-alpha.8 (2018-10-17)

Release packages

Changes since release 1.0.0-alpha.7

  • Removed restriction on Poly/ML 5.7 that required C function argument/return values with a C integer type to be in the range of Int.int which, in practice, required Int to be the same as IntInf.

  • Generated C wrapper functions for use with MLton so all functions supported.

  • Generated C functions to determine the size of value-like records.

  • Updated library versions:

    GLib 2.0

    2.50.3

    GIRepository 2.0

    1.50.0

    Atk 1.0

    2.22.0

    Pango 1.0

    1.40.9

    GdkPixbuf 2.0

    2.36.9

    GTK+ 3.0

    3.22.1

    GtkSourceView 3.0

    3.22.2

    Vte 2.90

    0.36.5

    Vte 2.91

    0.46.3

  • Included deprecated functions in generated code.

  • GLib namespace is loaded before GObject namespace.

  • Added GObject.Object.new.

  • Fixed property operators to respect construct-only mode.

  • Supported case-insensitive file systems.

  • Fixed use of dynamic loader with Poly/ML under Darwin.

1.0.0-alpha.7 (2017-10-18)

Release packages

Changes since release 1.0.0-alpha.6

  • Poly/ML 5.6 required.

  • Poly/ML 5.7 supported.

  • Poly/ML-specific changes:

    • Introduced finalizers based on weak references.

    • Used the new FFI (provided by the structure Foreign).

  • MLton-specific changes:

    • Added required MLton annotations to Giraffe library MLB files.

  • Added support for C array types.

  • Updated support for object types. For a class C, object types are changed as follows:

    'a CClass.t

    →

    'a CClass.class

    none

    →

    CClass.t

    (new local type)

    'a C.class_t

    →

    'a C.class

    C.t

    ↔

    C.t

    (no change)

  • Added support for structure types. (Previously, a limited number of record modules were created manually.) For a record R, structure type R.record_t has been removed.

  • Added remaining parts of namespaces that can be supported.

  • Changed type names in the module Signal:

    Signal.signal

    →

    Signal.t

    Signal.signal_id

    →

    Signal.id

  • Generated codegen log in excluded-log.page.

  • Used non-option type for 'out' parameters conditional on error and ignored boolean return value if it indicates an error.

1.0.0-alpha.6 (2015-09-16)

Release packages

Changes since release 1.0.0-alpha.5

  • Added type abbreviation for object and structure types:

    • for class C, object type C.t is equivalent to base C.class_t

    • for record R, structure type R.t is equivalent to R.record_t

  • Changed naming convention for types and constructors to use underscores between words in line with the Basis Library convention.

  • Changed Gdk button event names in line with GTK+ as follows:

    • TWOBUTTONPRESS changed to DOUBLE_BUTTON_PRESS

    • THREEBUTTONPRESS changed to TRIPLE_BUTTON_PRESS

  • Removed experimental type-safe interface to style properties. Style properties must be accessed via GObject.Value which is not type-safe.

1.0.0-alpha.5 (2015-05-29)

Release packages

Changes since release 1.0.0-alpha.4

  • Added support for Darwin (Mac OS X).

  • Poly/ML 5.5.2 required.

  • Improved installation:

    • scripts compatible with Dash and Bash 3

    • further configure options and checks

    • corrections to Makefile

  • config.mk file installed to provide configuration to applications.

  • Archive (A) files built for MLton C libraries instead of object (O) files.

  • Fixed bugs in C libraries and turned on C compiler warnings.

  • Changed runtime licence to LGPL v2.1.

1.0.0-alpha.4 (2015-02-08)

Release packages

Changes since release 1.0.0-alpha.3

  • Added support for multiple versions of a library.

  • Added library vte-2.91.

  • Restructured source code directories.

  • Introduced configure script for installation.

1.0.0-alpha.3 (2014-12-19)

Release packages

Changes since release 1.0.0-alpha.2

  • SML generated from GIR files:

    • no longer platform-specific

    • alias types included

  • Added support for Pango and GtkSourceView libraries.

  • Pid.t moved to GLib.Pid.t

  • FFI module for basic types restructured.

1.0.0-alpha.2 (2012-10-29)

Release packages

1.0.0-alpha.1 (2012-10-12)

Release packages