# Is Gtk.jl mature and stable on macOS?
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-gtk-jl-mature-and-stable-on-macos/75000
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** package
**Created:** [January 21, 2022, 6:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-gtk-jl-mature-and-stable-on-macos/75000 "2022-01-21T18:44:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Erik\_Engheim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Erik_Engheim)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2022, 6:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-gtk-jl-mature-and-stable-on-macos/75000/1 "2022-01-21T18:44:19Z")
I am trying to determine what GUI toolkit to use in Julia. I want to avoid pursuing a toolkit which is unstable and prone to crashes forcing me to switch toolkit midstream.
I am interested in using Gtk but I know from the past that it has often not been great on macOS. I get simple toy examples to work fine, but I am uncertain about how stable things will be with more complex GUIs. E.g. I have noticed that Glade UI builder which I installed through Homebrew is prone to crashing very easily.
My worry is that this is not merely a Glade problem but an underlying problem with Gtk, which I will hit as well as I build a more complex solution. Can anyone who has used Gtk on macOS verify whether Gtk works well?
If it doesn’t what is the recommended solution which is most mature and stable?
I am including description of my Glade errors. While not related directly to Julia, it may inform you whether this is a general problem with Gtk on Mac or likely Glade specific.
In the console I get this when a crash happens:
```julia
$ GladeUI-Message: 16:16:54.601: Glade needs artwork; a default icon will be used for the following classes:
GtkFileChooserNative needs an icon named 'widget-gtk-filechoosernative'
GtkApplicationWindow needs an icon named 'widget-gtk-applicationwindow'
GThemedIcon needs an icon named 'widget-gtk-themedicon'
GFileIcon needs an icon named 'widget-gtk-fileicon'
GladeInstantiableGtkBin needs an icon named 'widget-gtk-bin'
GladeUI-Message: 16:16:54.633: No DevHelp installed on your system, devhelp feature will be disabled.
** Message: 16:16:55.237: No TLS support in GIO, Registration & User Survey disabled. (missing glib-networking package)
fish: 'glade &' terminated by signal SIGSEGV (Address boundary error)
```
While the Apple Problem report dialog gives the following info (I have just extracted what I thought might be useful):
```julia
Crashed Thread: 0
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x00000001112337d8
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY
Termination Signal: Segmentation fault: 11
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb
Terminating Process: exc handler [15386]
VM Regions Near 0x1112337d8:
CoreAnimation 10d297000-10d434000 [1652K] rw-/rwx SM=PRV
-->
STACK GUARD 70000291a000-70000291b000 [4K] ---/rwx SM=NUL stack guard for thread 1
Thread 0 Crashed:
0 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007fff202837a9 0x7fff2027d000 + 26537
1 libgdk-3.0.dylib 0x0000000101146ec0 _gdk_quartz_display_queue_events + 1360
2 libgdk-3.0.dylib 0x000000010114987a gdk_event_dispatch + 26
3 libglib-2.0.0.dylib 0x000000010087603e g_main_context_dispatch + 366
4 libglib-2.0.0.dylib 0x00000001008763bd g_main_context_iterate + 525
5 libglib-2.0.0.dylib 0x0000000100876702 g_main_loop_run + 258
6 libgtk-3.0.dylib 0x0000000100a4b74e gtk_dialog_run + 350
7 glade
```
---
### Author:  [@lobingera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lobingera)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 9:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-gtk-jl-mature-and-stable-on-macos/75000/2 "2022-01-22T09:55:48Z")
The error message sounds like the installation is missing icons and a library, both problems could be dependent on how the Gtk.jl is installled (-\> issue for Gtk.jl and binaryProvider).
---
### Author:  [@tknopp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tknopp)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 10:33am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-gtk-jl-mature-and-stable-on-macos/75000/3 "2022-01-22T10:33:47Z")
This is a homebrew issue not a Gtk.jl issue. Gtk.jl runs fine on OSX. I have that same issue with glade on OSX and therefore usually develop my applications on Linux.
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### Author:  [@lobingera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lobingera)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 10:47am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-gtk-jl-mature-and-stable-on-macos/75000/4 "2022-01-22T10:47:13Z")
i see. Did you file an issue to brew? (and would it make sense to include a glade into binaryProvider for Gtk.jl?)
---
### Author:  [@tknopp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tknopp)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 11:05am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-gtk-jl-mature-and-stable-on-macos/75000/5 "2022-01-22T11:05:56Z")
And would it make sense to include a glade into binaryProvider for Gtk.jl?
If possible: yes!
---
### Author:  [@Erik\_Engheim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Erik_Engheim)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2022, 2:31pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-gtk-jl-mature-and-stable-on-macos/75000/6 "2022-01-24T14:31:55Z")
Thanks, very useful to know. I can use Glade on Linux if I absolutely need to access it then. The rest of the development I can do on Mac.
Anyway I have seen people recommending not using Glade for Gtk4 and writing XML gui files by hand instead. It sure what Gtk version Gtk.jl wraps through.
---
### Author:  [@tknopp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tknopp)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2022, 2:47pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-gtk-jl-mature-and-stable-on-macos/75000/7 "2022-01-24T14:47:25Z")
Gtk3. Gkt4 will come at some point but don’t expect this to be soon.
It’s a matter of taste whether to write the xml files by hand, with glade, or creating the widgets in Julia. I do much with glade since it allows me to move widgets around without changing the code. [ImageView](https://github.com/JuliaImages/ImageView.jl) on the other hand was written without glade/builder.