I am trying to build GTK+ 2.16.3 on ScientificLinux. I have installed (I think correctly, but am not 100% positive) the following packages to support building GTK:
glib 2.20.4
pkg-config-0.23
atk 1.13.0
Cairo 1.8.8
Pango 1.24.2
Pixman 0.12.0
Freetype 2.3.9
Fontconfig 2.7.0

The ./configure step works fine with GTK, but the make step terminates with the following error
../../../modules/other/gail/gailutil.h:62: error: syntax error before "AtkMisc"
../../../modules/other/gail/gailutil.h:62: warning: no semicolon at end of struct or union
../../../modules/other/gail/gailutil.h:69: error: syntax error before "AtkMiscClass"
../../../modules/other/gail/gailutil.h:69: warning: no semicolon at end of struct or union
make[1]: *** [libgail_la-gail.lo] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/mydirectory/gtk+-2.16.3/modules/other/gail'
make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1

I looked inside the gailutil.h file and there does not appear to be a syntax error. Here is an excerpt of the code with line numbers:

60 struct _GailMisc
61 {
62 AtkMisc parent;
63 };
64
65 GType gail_misc_get_type (void);
66
67 struct _GailMiscClass
68 {
69 AtkMiscClass parent_class;
70 };

Any experience with an error like this? Any ideas are much appreciated.

Thanks.

GTK+-2.16.3 is pretty new so I have no experiences. Can you tell us, whether you used any parameters in .configure and what gcc and glibc do you use?

You will NOT be able to build and install a new gtk on ScientificLinux - easily

you Might if you install everything ( and i DO MEAN build and install EVERYTHING needed -- ps by the time you are done with that you will have build fedora 11 from scratch --

build and install EVERY dependency in a "build folder " that IS NOT IN THE SYSTEM PATH
and use the cflags and linker flags to point to EVERYTHING that you build on top of those -- ps this will mean EVERYTHING above glib--

for the most part you will be building Gnome from scratch

and if you install anything "new" on top of the ScientificLinux 's version you WILL KILL the OS
DO NOT INSTALL ANY OF THE NEW CODE IN /usr or /usr/local THAT WILL KILL "ScientificLinux" but install it some place like /usr/opt or /opt, or /opt/NEWgtk