hess@adminsun.ee.Virginia.EDU (Paul Hess) (12/29/90)
Subject - X-Windows Advice
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Hello comp.windows.x-ers. I'm just getting started with X-Windows and
need some advice on where to get various things. Respond to me by E-Mail
and I'll post a summary here in a little while. I have a few "categories"
of questions. How I break down the categories may show my ignorance or
understanding of X-Windows, so please feel free to correct me. I'm asking
the questions more generally than I need to, so that the information can
be useful to others.
A. Where to get X-Window Servers
Where do I get X-Windows for various machines? Do I need to get X-Window
servers AND X-Windows development environment or are they basically the
same thing? How hard are they to install, and how reliable are the
various packages?
- For the Mac OS
- For the PC DOS and/or Windows
- For UNIX (from MIT I suppose - who to contact)
- others
B. X-Windows Libraries (i.e. Motif, Open-Windows, Etc)
My understanding is that there are a number of libraries built on top of
the X-Windows standard which make development much easier and provide a
common look and feel. Are these libraries specific to certain machines or
are they generic? Are they public domain (like X is) or do you buy it?
Are there commercial versions available and do they differ in any
important ways from the PD ones?
Are the libraries pre-processors that turn your code into generic X-code
(similar to many c++ compilers) or are they honest-to-goodness libraries?
C. CAD TOOLS
CAD tools for GUI seem to be all the fad nowadays. There's NextStep for
the NEXT machine, C-Worthy et al on the PC, MacApp for the MAC, and
generic ones like HOOPS, OIT from Neuron Data, etc etc. Are there tools
for X-Windows that let you "draw" your interface and then just plug in
code for your callback routines. Anybody have any experience using any
X-Windows CAD tools?
D. Good references
What good X programming references are you aware of? Who publishes them?
As a programmer I have always found the most useful documentation to be
the basic alphabetized list of routine names, each with lots of good
description and example text and "see also" sections for each one. These
books usually include groupings of routines in the front, so you can see a
list of all routines dealing with file I/O, routines dealing with
scrolling, math, etc.
What books or references do you use? Are you happy with them?
E. Configurations
To what extent do I need to be concerned about configurations of machines.
I'm a little fuzzy on my understanding of this part so bear with me. My
understanding is that I need to target a given CPU that the program will
reside on (for instance an IBM RS/6000) and that any user on the network
running plain X-Windows can interact with my program no matter what
hardware he is using, and no matter which X-libraries (see B) I chose to
develop with. But if I want my program to run from his machine directly, I
need to send the source and probably also install any X-Libraries such as
Motif and then recompile a new executable on his machine. Is this mental
model correct?
*************************************************************************
Thanks in advance for any information, pointers, or anecdotes you
can supply me. I'll post a summary to the net when I get enough
info to be useful to others with similar questions.
*************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Hess E-Mail: hess@adminsun.ee.virginia.edu
AbTech Corporation Phone 804-977-0686
700 Harris Street Fax 804-979-3749
Charlottesville, Virginia 22901
------------------------------------------------------------------------mouse@LIGHTNING.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU (12/31/90)
Paul Hess writes about X advice. I've replied directly by mail, as he
requested, but one thing he says I think calls for a public reply.
> Are they [some libraries] public domain (like X is)
This seems to be a very common misconception, that "public domain"
means the same thing as "available for free" or "redistributable
without fee" or some such.
THIS IS NOT TRUE. "Public domain" is a legal term with a specific
meaning, and it does not mean the same thing as "freely
redistributable" or "available at no cost". X, to pick one example, is
copyrighted by various individuals and institutions; it is not public
domain, even though it is available for free and can be redistributed
without fee.
I am not a copyright lawyer; I will not try to define precisely what
"public domain" really does mean, or how it differs from "copyrighted
but redistributable without fee". If the difference matters to you
(for example, if you are considering selling a product based on
something you think is "public domain"), consult a lawyer who does know
the difference. I'm just trying to raise the general consciousness a
little....
(I'm not picking on Paul Hess in particular. Paul's posting just
happens to be an example of what I see as a dangerous tendency.)
der Mouse
old: mcgill-vision!mouse
new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.eduhess@adminsun.ee.Virginia.EDU (Paul Hess) (01/01/91)
In article <9012310051.AA28309@lightning.McRCIM.McGill.ED2> mouse@LIGHTNING.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU writes: >Paul Hess writes about X advice. I've replied directly by mail, as he >requested, but one thing he says I think calls for a public reply. > >> Are they [some libraries] public domain (like X is) > >This seems to be a very common misconception, that "public domain" >means the same thing as "available for free" or "redistributable >without fee" or some such. > >THIS IS NOT TRUE. "Public domain" is a legal term with a specific You're right! I agree with you that this is a dangerous shorthand. Especially true because I knew it was not "Public Domain". What I really meant and should have said is "freely distributable". ps: Thanks for all the replies. Some of you pointed out the FAQ list which I wasn't aware of. In addition, I've received some useful opinion type information. I'll post a summary in a while when the mail stops coming in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Paul Hess E-Mail: hess@adminsun.ee.virginia.edu AbTech Corporation Phone 804-977-0686 700 Harris Street Fax 804-979-3749 Charlottesville, Virginia 22901 ------------------------------------------------------------------------