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Extensions in GNOME 45 - New import system is not backwards compatible
(blogs.gnome.org)
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this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
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The JS bindings to GTK4 (GJS) are complete, AFAIK; & allow for facilities like
Gtk.Expressionwhich the Python bindings still don't have& they've made rapid progress in a short time. The online documentation that's available is also getting really good.
Though I'm not sure why extensions have to be in JS, since JS is acting as a 'glue language' to the GObject bindings anyway. Isn't an extension just a GTK application that talks to specific DBus interfaces?
I suspect that the issue boils down to not-so-well-fleshed-out (to put it politely) dbus interfaces on GTK apps. Probably GJS has an easier time setting/sending messages & signals over DBus, so that's why extensions are in JS.
Many languages have well functioning bindings to GObject, Gdk, etc.; some are more complete than others (lua's (lgi) are trailing behind -- but still, you can do things like subscribe to a dbus_proxy in an embedded lua that lives inside vim or neovim, and send-receive messages with that) & some even come with good documentation, tutorials, etc.