V5(development)

[astraldev]

v5

Rewrite of GGate (formerly GLogic) onto GTK 4 / libadwaita. New simulation playback,
a themed component icon set, runtime theming, a meson build, and CI/packaging.

Runtime / platform

• GTK 4 + libadwaita app with a Cairo-rendered canvas. Requires Python >=3.10,
  GTK >=4.16, libadwaita >=1.6.8. Runtime deps: pygobject, pycairo, python-igraph,
  shapely, packaging.
• App id org.astralco.ggate (.Dev in the development profile).
• Dialogs moved to libadwaita equivalents (Adw.Dialog, Adw.AlertDialog, Adw.HeaderBar).

Simulation engine + playback

• The simulation now runs in two phases. First it computes the whole run to completion in
  small background slices so the UI stays responsive, recording every timestep
  (CircuitManager.begin_compute/compute_slice, frames in component_state_history).
  Then it plays those recorded frames back — playback never re-runs the engine.
• Playback lives in its own class, CircuitPlaybackAnimation. It owns the transport state
  (computing → playing ⇄ paused → ended/idle) and the play/pause/restart/seek/stop actions.
  CircuitManager stays the engine and data layer.
• Playback speed targets a total duration rather than a fixed frame delay, clamped to a
  16–200 ms/frame range. The target is a new "Animation duration" preference.
• Circuits that don't change over time (e.g. no oscillator) skip playback and just show the
  final state; the playback bar doesn't appear for them.
• Editing a property or flipping a switch mid-run throws away the recorded run and recomputes
  from the start with the new value (MainFrame.recompute_simulation), so what you see always
  matches the current circuit. A switch keeps its toggled state across that recompute.
• The original synchronous run path is still available for non-GUI use.

UI

• New floating playback bar (PlaybackControls). DrawArea changed from a scrolled window
  into an overlay that wraps the scroller, so the bar stays pinned over the canvas while the
  content scrolls underneath. Controls: Stop · Restart · Play/Pause, then a seek slider and a
  fixed-width time readout that doesn't jitter as it updates. The bar's Stop ends the run.
  The header simulation control is now just Play/Stop.
• Component sidebar with search and categories.
• Preferences rebuilt as an Adw.PreferencesDialog (Appearance / Simulation / Canvas);
  its widgets are built once and reused.
• Timing diagram rebuilt as a dialog with scale/range/save controls, scroll-synced panes,
  drag-to-scrub, theme-aware waveforms, and a warning when the diagram hits Cairo's width limit.

Theming + icons

• Built-in light and dark themes (Classic, Space, Frappé, Mocha) defined as JSON in
  data/themes/ and loaded at runtime; switchable from Preferences (logic in Themes.py).
• Hand-drawn component icons in two symbol sets (ANSI and IEC); icon spec documented in
  data/images/components/spec.md.

Build / packaging / CI

• meson build (resource compile, install, generated config.py, desktop + AppStream files).
  In development, run.py regenerates and registers the dev resource bundle on each launch so
  it can't go stale.
• GitHub Actions (Fedora container) produce a meson dist tarball; flatpak/snap/deb workflows
  run only on releases. Version unified to 5.0.0.

Docs / assets

• README (requirements, run steps, screenshots, v1→v5 history), NEWS 5.0.0, INSTALL, TODO.
• gallery/: screenshots captured by build-aux/capture_screenshots.py (themes, playback,
  timing, preferences, properties) and a 1080p demo clip produced by build-aux/make_demo.sh.

Notable fixes

• Oscillators now produce timing history.
• Unconnected input pins no longer crash the simulator.
• .glc files load their property values with the correct types.
• libadwaita styling, property-dialog behaviour, running-mode crashes, first-paint centering,
  and a zoom clamp (0.5–20).

Known / deferred

• pytest and its config are present but there is no tests/ directory yet.
• Long playbacks run past the target duration (no frame subsampling); there's no playback speed
  control beyond the duration preference, and no progress indicator during compute.
• Switch toggles during a run aren't recorded in undo history and don't mark the file modified.