as opposed to the destructor of Gnome::Canvas::Canvas which works fine,
there seems to be a mem or destructor problem with the Gnome::Canvas::CanvasAA
just take the standard example file from gtkmm:
gnomemm-all-1.3.15/libgnomecanvasmm/examples/canvas/canvas.cc
and modify line 8
class CanvasExample : public Gnome::Canvas::CanvasAA
instead of class CanvasExample : public Gnome::Canvas::Canvas
then the program executes fine wit an AA canvas. however, when closing the
program, the following errors appear:
$ ./canvas
                                                                          
      
(canvas:27026): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: instance of invalid non-instantiatable
type `<invalid>'
  
(canvas:27026): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: file gsignal.c: line 2490
(g_signal_emit_valist): assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed
  
(canvas:27026): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: file gobject.c: line 1337
(g_object_unref): assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

i detected this error on another program (the gtkmm canvas example is just
for illustration)
and since that program worked without err in c, i suppose there is a
destructor error in the CanvasAA wrapper
in my original program, closing the program (which executes and displays
fine even with CanvasAA) gives the following error:
(gaga:20503): GnomeCanvas-CRITICAL **: file gnome-canvas.c: line 3721
(gnome_canvas_request_redraw): assertion `GNOME_IS_CANVAS (canvas)' failed
this error message is repeated for each Canvas::Item that was displayed
before closing the program
just as the gnomemm-all-1.3.15/libgnomecanvasmm/examples/canvas/canvas.cc
file, replacing Gnome::Canvas with Gnome::CanvasAA leads to a working
program that displays perfectly
but with CanvasAA there are errors when the program is closed
conclusion: destructor problem in the Gnome::CanvasAA wrapper