Hi Michele,

> ...
> You are right, I'm linking against gtk-4 shipped by the distribution
> I'm using. In this case, I'm on Ubuntu 22.04 which, at the time of
> writing this email, ships gtk-4 version 4.6.6.

> This leads me to a few follow-up questions:
 
> 1) I did build G-Golf using automake which should figure out all
> versions of the libraries I'm linking against.

	there are two questions, here is the first answer:

G-Golf 'figures out' its own dependencies, and gtk is not a g-golf
dependency - note that this said, you need gtk+-3.0 to run make check,
but that is because it's needed to check the override mechanism, there
is 'no way out' - currently make checks also depends on clutter but i
am working to entirely remove the clutter dependency]

> Should an error have been raised when I called the incompatible
> constructor? Or maybe a print in the console log?

G-Golf can't do that, as by design, goops and the mop (meta object
protocl) allow 'other keyword(s)' (in a make call) - so this would
raise many false positive.

Also, as you may see in the peg-solitaire example, G-Golf users may
define GObject sub-classes that define direct slots that define
init-keyword, and those slots not registered as g-properties - ll
this is/are a feature, not a bug - this situation would also trigger
hundreds of false positive lanching then playing the game ...

You, as a G-Golf user and the author of a G-Golf based app, must know
your 'stuff', consult and double check the upstream lib doc ...
there is 'no way out either'.

> 2) Assuming I want to write shippable code, is it possible to know
> which gtk-4 version is being used and which constructor to call?

You will have to, assuming you use the autotool chain, add your own app
dependencies, like for example

	PKG_CHECK_MODULES(GTK, gtk+-4.0 >= 4.6.6)
	[or another version ofc, just an example ...
 
> 3) Is gtk-string-list unique in this regard, or are there also other
> classes which need to be instantiated using the non-idiomatic way?

Certainly not, but as i said, you write the app, you check (which is
easy really, and quite re insuring for your users ... as i said, you
must know your stuff, the upstream lib doc, its version, dperecation,
new interfces ... and try/doublecheck/verify when you face such a
situation ... there is no way out either, and be prepared, gtk and
libadwaita are in constant evolution ...

> Thanks a lot for all the help!

No problem,
Thanks for using G-Golf!
David