First and foremost: asking this question in any public
forum is strongly discouraged.
Don't do it. Check the archives for several extended
off-topic flamefests if you're interested.
Here are some reasons:
-
The original authors wanted to write it in C, and
now many C-only applications are based on it. The
current authors enjoy C.
-
GTK+ handles types and objects much more flexibly
than C++; it is runtime-oriented, more like Java or
Objective C than C++ system. This is convenient for
GUI builders and language bindings.
-
C is the lingua franca of UNIX development; most
people know how to code in it.
-
There are already nice toolkits for languages such
as Java and Objective C. There are C++ wrappers for
GTK+; several, in fact.
-
C is more portable than C++; ANSI C++ is not yet
widely implemented, so only an ill-defined subset
of C++ can actually be used.
-
When GTK+ development first started, there was no
free, working C++ compiler.
Again: do not ask this question on any mailing lists,
because people will not be amused.
