noren@dinl.uucp (Charles Noren) (08/03/90)
Here is the situation:
1. We will be using a commercial C++ compiler.
2. We are redoing a graphical user interface using X-Windows
as the foundation. The user interface will have:
a. Buttons
b. Simple menus (walking menus would be nice, but Xt does
not support it nicely yet and neither does InterViews
as far as I can tell). Menus include pop-up and
persistent.
c. Scalable-size graphical objects, that are a composite
of circles, rectangles, polygons. These can be filled
or unfilled.
d. Geographical maps of various sorts.
e. Displays can be constructed by the user using scalable-sized
objects and maps.
f. Displays organized into hierarchies.
g. Certain information displayed as bar-charts, line-graphs,
pie-charts, with lines of different types (color, thickness,
dashed/dotted/unbroken).
h. Scrollable text and graphics windows.
The question:
What inexpensive/public domain toolkit best suits the job.
We have been getting up to speed on Xt of X11R4 and know how
to do everything we want using Xt. We are just beginning to
look at the InterViews C++ class toolkit from Stanford University
which looks like it offers similar functionality of Xt but
organized into classes.
Some related questions:
1. How widely used is InterViews?
2. How strongly does Stanford support (or whatever the real
development entity is) InterViews development?
As X-Windows matures, will InterViews mature?
3. How much of a standard is InterViews now and how
likely will InterViews be a standard in the future?
4. How mature is InterViews? How bug free is it?
How compatable is it to other libraries (I've heard
of an incompatability with NIHCL)?
5. Is there another toolkit that we should be examining?
I know that the user interface begs to be written in Objective-C
with their ICPAKs (in fact, prototypes were developed *very*
quickly in Objective-C) and that is my preferred way to go,
but I'm given a C++ environment.
--
Chuck Noren
NET: dinl!noren@ncar.ucar.edu
US-MAIL: Martin Marietta I&CS, MS XL8058, P.O. Box 1260,
Denver, CO 80201-1260
Phone: (303) 971-7930marks@agcsun.UUCP (Mark Shepherd) (08/04/90)
In article <1681@dinl.mmc.UUCP> noren@dinl.UUCP (Charles Noren) writes: >Here is the situation: > >1. We will be using a commercial C++ compiler. >2. We are redoing a graphical user interface using X-Windows > as the foundation...... [list of widgets] > > [we are looking at Xt and InterViews] > Is there another toolkit that we should be examining? Look at the product from Solbourne called OI (Object Interface?). It is a set of C++ classes that gives access to all the usual widgets. The unique feature of this toolkit is that by toggling a switch you can get the widgets to look like Open Look or Motif, without having to change any of your code. I recently saw a demo of some reasonably complex applications written with the toolkit and it seems to work. The vendor claims that they do (or will) support 100% of the functionality defined for both OpenLook and Motif, and that they will evolve the product over time to keep up with changing standards. Solbourne is in Longmont, CO. I was told that the first release of the product should be available this month for Open Look, and around the end of the year for Motif. [disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with Solbourne, and am merely passing on information that was given to me by the vendor]. Mark Shepherd agcsun!marks@boulder.colorado.edu 303-279-1300 x288 (voice) 303-279-2209 (fax)
noren@dinl.uucp (Charles Noren) (08/18/90)
Thanks to all who answered on their experiences and thoughts
on InterViews. The consensus was that InterViews is a nice
class toolkit for X-Windows, and (at least the latest release)
reasonably bug free. Another C++ class toolkit mentioned a lot
was Solbourne's OI (they are located in Longmont, Colorado).
One person, Ciaran McHale [cjmchale@cs.tcd.ie], tried to send
information to me, but his long e-mail message bounced
(I got his short e-mail messages, but I could not get my e-mail
through to him).
Thanks again,
--
Chuck Noren
NET: dinl!noren@ncar.ucar.edu
US-MAIL: Martin Marietta I&CS, MS XL8058, P.O. Box 1260,
Denver, CO 80201-1260
Phone: (303) 971-7930