Preparation of release 1.4.5

[Albrecht Schlosser]

I am in the process of preparing the next public release 1.4.5, but
there is still something to do before we can release it. There is no
schedule yet but I hope we can release 1.4.5 by the end of February
(2026 ;-) ).

For now I updated the version number(s) in all relevant files with the
goal to check ABI compatibility. So far I didn't find any issues.

I created a new milestone "FLTK 1.4.5" on GitHub:
https://github.com/fltk/fltk/milestone/11

Please add issues that *must* be fixed in 1.4.5 to this milestone, but
keep in mind that only severe bugs should be fixed, and that no new
features should be added to 1.4.x releases. Note that we have already 36
commits since release 1.4.4.

Please add a comment to this thread if you think anything else is worth
(necessary) considering for 1.4.5.

[Daniel Harding]

Hi Albrecht,

I understand you may be trying to slow down changes to branch-1.4 in order to have something stable to prepare for the release, but I politely request that you consider backporting the following 3 bug fixes to branch-1.4 before releasing FLTK 1.4.5:

1. https://github.com/fltk/fltk/commit/2b3cb9be65a1ca392e9d277c6b494ad77277d38a

2. https://github.com/fltk/fltk/commit/ea1b1bddd96be6616e1b2b0eccbe815f9b71ad11

3. https://github.com/fltk/fltk/commit/99648c047c01fb1868c2adab8b515cec9739ea38

Thanks for considering.

-Daniel

[Albrecht Schlosser]

Hi Daniel and others,

on 4/20/26 19:09 Daniel Harding wrote:

I understand you may be trying to slow down changes to branch-1.4 in order to have something stable to prepare for the release, 

In fact it's not "slow down" but "stop" changes. The gist is that I want to wait about 14 days after the last commit for potential issues to come up after these commits to avoid having to push yet another release quickly after the previous one.

Another rule is our agreed-upon policy that only severe bugs shall be fixed in a patch releases.

... I politely request that you consider backporting the following 3 bug fixes to branch-1.4 before releasing FLTK 1.4.5:

1. https://github.com/fltk/fltk/commit/2b3cb9be65a1ca392e9d277c6b494ad77277d38a

2. https://github.com/fltk/fltk/commit/ea1b1bddd96be6616e1b2b0eccbe815f9b71ad11

3. https://github.com/fltk/fltk/commit/99648c047c01fb1868c2adab8b515cec9739ea38

Thanks for considering.

I'm willing to consider this, but I can't do any significant work on FLTK before Wednesday (April 22). Since the release is scheduled for Saturday, there's not much room to consider and backport the commits you mentioned. I'll need most of the time (besides my private life ;-) ) to finalize the release. I'm sorry, but chances to backport these changes to branch-1.4 right now (before the release) are minimal.

Others have asked for a quick release, and I promised to do it on Saturday, 25th. As you can see, there are conflicting requests.

OTOH I think that two of these commits are pretty simple and safe, but I have no idea what the third commit (ea1b1bddd96be6616e1b2b0eccbe815f9b71ad11) is about. I mean, I know what it's intended to do, but I don't know if there's any risk changing the macOS code this way, or if there's potential for regressions.


Albrecht


PS: I'm generally open for FLTK developer votes on including these three patches in 1.4.5. I request that those who vote +1 for a particular patch have reviewed it thoroughly and tested on the platform in question or on at least two platforms (if not platform specific). Please vote for each patch separately, and mention the platforms you tested it on. I need final votes until Thursday, 4 pm (UTC). Maybe we can make an exception - if the risk of issues is (or at least seems) very small. Please don't expect much feedback from me tomorrow (Tuesday UTC) because I'll be busy.

PPS: I'm personally not willing to break these rules further for 1.4.x without a discussion and consensus about changing our policy, but note also that I am for not changing this. I support, however, releasing 1.5.0 soon (about July/August might be possible), and also to release more often in the future. This should reduce the pressure on backporting. Hopefully.

[melcher....@googlemail.com]

https://github.com/fltk/fltk/commit/2b3cb9be65a1ca392e9d277c6b494ad77277d38a

disables tooltips on popup menu windows for all platforms, not only for "Unix". I am indifferent to this fix. It doesn't seem to break anything, but it *does* change some behavior on macOS and Windows - probably to the better.

https://github.com/fltk/fltk/commit/ea1b1bddd96be6616e1b2b0eccbe815f9b71ad11

is mediating a rendering artifact. There is no risk of breaking much. It does not solve all possible rendering attribute combinations. +1

https://github.com/fltk/fltk/commit/99648c047c01fb1868c2adab8b515cec9739ea38

seems minimally invasive and fixes a true bug. +1