GNOME Builder

Last updated
GNOME Builder
Original author(s) Christian Hergert
Initial releaseMarch 24, 2015;10 years ago (2015-03-24)
Stable release
48.0 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg (16 March 2025;2 months ago (16 March 2025))
Repository
Written in C
Operating system Unix-like
Predecessor Anjuta
Available inMultilingual
Type Integrated development environment
License GPL-3.0-or-later [2] [3]
Website apps.gnome.org/Builder/

GNOME Builder is a general purpose integrated development environment (IDE) for the GNOME platform, primarily designed to aid in writing GNOME-based applications. [4] It was initially released on March 24, 2015, replacing Anjuta. [5] The application's tagline is "A toolsmith for GNOME-based applications". [4]

Contents

Features

At GUADEC 2016 Christian Hergert provided a demo on YouTube of an upcoming version of GNOME Builder. More features will be integrated once GTK Scene Graph Kit will have been merged into GTK. sysprof was forked and its version number bumped from 1.2.0 to 3.20 [9] and was integrated in version 3.22. [10]

GNOME Builder uses GNOME Code Assistance to provide code diagnostics for CSS, HTML, JS, JSON, Python, Ruby, SCSS, shell script and XML. Jedi is used for code completion for Python. Clang is used for code assistance for the C-like languages. Rust diagnostics are provided by using the Language Server Protocol to communicate with the Rust Language Server.

User interface

Most of the interface is dedicated to the centrally positioned code editor. The editor automatically recognizes most programming languages and will highlight the text accordingly. When a version control system is used, colored bars next to the line numbers indicate changes to those lines. For supported languages, additional symbols highlight lines that contain errors or poorly formatted code.

Builder can switch between Builder's own, Vim-like and Emacs-like keyboard bindings.

Around the code-editor, additional panels can be toggled into view. These include a project-tree, a terminal-window, and a help-browser. The project tree allows the user to perform file and folder operations.

Development

The development of GNOME Builder was crowdfunded in January 2015 on the Indiegogo platform. The campaign reached 187% ($56,245) of its $30,000 funding goal. [11]

Version history

Version NumberRelease DateNotes
3.16.024 March 2015Initial "preview" release [5]
3.16.113 April 2015Included improvements to the user interface, file management and syntax highlighting. [12] [13]
3.16.216 April 2015Brought mostly bug fixes and some improvements to project management. [14] [15] [16] [17]
3.16.318 May 2015Included a source-overview-map for scrolling and updates to the preference-dialogs. [18]
3.18.023 September 2015Was released with the rest of GNOME 3.18. [19]
3.18.115 October 2015Brought improvements to Vala code completion and error-hinting. The Jedi-plugin for Python code-completion was improved as well. [20]
3.2023 March 2016Was released with GNOME 3.20. [21]
3.20.46 May 2016Included stability and performance improvements, [22] including re-implementation of support for opening remote files. [23]
3.22.22 November 2016Introduced preliminary support for Rust and its GTK bindings. [24]
3.22.422 December 2016Included various build system improvements and better support for building Flatpak packages [25]
3.32.03 March 2019Major refactoring of the application's code. [26] Included improved GDB integration and an initial Glade integration. [27]
3.32.26 May 2019Improvements to building apps and bug fixes. [28]
3.32.311 June 2019Included localization improvements, and bug fixes. [29]
...
48.215 Mar 2025Improvements to manuals, bug fixes and translations. [30]

See also

References

  1. https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-builder/-/tags/48.0.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. Hergert, Christian (2014-09-07). "COPYING · master · GNOME/gnome-builder" . Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  3. "README.md · master · GNOME/gnome-builder". 24 April 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Builder: A toolsmith for GNOME-based applications". wiki.gnome.org. Retrieved 2020-04-23. A tool to help you write and contribute to great GNOME-based applications.
  5. 1 2 Hergert, Christian (2015-03-24). "GNOME Builder - 3.16.0". Gnome Mail Services. Retrieved 2020-04-23. As some of you know, I've just made our initial "preview" release, 3.16.0!
  6. Lerch, Ryan (2014-08-04). "Builder — a new IDE specifically for GNOME app developers". fedoramagazine.org. Retrieved 2020-04-26. […] GNOME Builder — an IDE that will focus purely on GNOME applications, with a goal of making it "Dead Simple".
  7. "Are we (I)DE yet?" . Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  8. Hergert, Christian (2016-01-21). "Builder Plugins – Part I". Zen and the Art of GNOME. Retrieved 2020-04-26. We support writing plugins in a variety of languages. Currently, C, Vala, and Python 3 are all supported in Builder.
  9. "sysprof in Debian". packages.debian.org. Debian . Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  10. Nestor, Marius (2016-10-17). "GNOME Builder 3.22.1 Adds Support for Sysprof Visualizers, Polishes the UI". Softpedia . Retrieved 2016-11-20.
  11. "Builder, An IDE of our GNOME". Indiegogo . 2015-01-27. Retrieved 2020-04-26. I need your support so that I can work on Builder full time. I'm asking for $30,000 to cover my costs […]
  12. Hergert, Christian (2015-04-13). "Gnome-Builder 3.16.1". gnome-announce-list (Mailing list). Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  13. Nestor, Marius (2015-04-17). "GNOME Builder IDE Gets a Massive Update in GNOME 3.16.1". Softpedia . Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  14. Hergert, Christian (2015-04-16). "Gnome-Builder 3.16.2". gnome-announce-list (Mailing list). Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  15. Hergert, Christian. "GNOME Builder - 3.16.2" . Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  16. Nestor, Marius (2015-04-19). "GNOME Builder 3.16's Second Point Release Brings More Improvements". Softpedia . Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  17. Clasen, Matthias (May 13, 2015). "GNOME 3.16.2 released". gnome-announce-list (Mailing list). Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  18. Hergert, Christian. "GNOME Builder - 3.16.3" . Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  19. Nestor, Marius (2015-09-22). "GNOME Builder 3.18 Officially Released Ahead of the GNOME 3.18 Desktop Environment". Softpedia . Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  20. Nestor, Marius (2015-10-16). "First Point Release of GNOME Builder 3.18 Brings Initial Support for Vala, Faster Autocompletion". Softpedia . Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  21. "GNOME 3.20 Released With Various Refinements And Application Updates". WebUpd8. 23 March 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  22. Hergert, Christian (6 May 2016). "Builder 3.20.4". blogs.gnome.org. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  23. Nestor, Marius (2016-05-07). "GNOME Builder 3.20.4 IDE Re-Implements Support for Opening Remote Files". Softpedia . Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  24. Nestor, Marius (2016-11-02). "GNOME Builder 3.22.2 Released with Technology Preview for Rust Support, More". Softpedia . Retrieved 2020-04-23. 3.22.2 also includes a technology preview for Rust support
  25. Nestor, Marius (2016-12-28). "GNOME Builder 3.24 Promises Big Features, 3.22.4 Improves Flatpak Support". Softpedia . Retrieved 2020-04-23. That's right, we're talking about GNOME Builder 3.22.4, […]. Notable changes include various build system improvements, better support for building Flatpak packages, […]
  26. Hergert, Christian (2019-01-17). "Builder 3.32 Sightings". Zen and the Art of GNOME. Retrieved 2020-04-23. We just landed the largest refactor to Builder since its inception. Somewhere around 100,000 lines of code where touched […]
  27. Larabel, Michael (2019-01-17). "GNOME's Builder IDE Goes Through Its Biggest Code Refactoring Ever". www.phoronix.com. Retrieved 2020-04-23. Some of the Builder 3.32 changes as part of this huge code refactoring include: […] Improved debugger integration with GDB. Initial Glade integration.
  28. "NEWS · fb19922e34420d84c89c68eeb614341c3f58ada3 · GNOME / gnome-builder · GitLab". GitLab. 2019-05-06. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  29. "NEWS · da17179909ec1a1fbcb8aa713978804e970058a5 · GNOME / gnome-builder · GitLab". GitLab. 2019-06-12. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  30. "NEWS · GNOME / gnome-builder · GitLab". GitLab. 2025-03-15. Retrieved 2025-06-04.