davecb@yunexus.YorkU.CA (David Collier-Brown) (09/09/90)
mouse@SHAMASH.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU (der Mouse) writes: >The major problem with this is lack of configurability. I certainly >wouldn't be using X right now if it mandated someone else's idea of a >nice interface [...] >Tools not rules - and if you want to implement rules, be our guest. > der Mouse I'd like to attack this whole line of discussion, if I may (:-)).[aim] I claim that [situation] 1) the X programmer interface is at a very low level, that of a set of primitive classes and their first few layers of generalization, addressed in a low-level language. 2) the appearance of well-written X applications is substantially malleable through the manipulation of configuration parameters 3) some aspects of this malleability are blocked by ill-advised policy decisions by particular (eg, OSF/UI) class authors. One can do several things about this: [courses] 0) live with it 1) complain 2) try to arrive at a single standard 3) write programs which are malleable enough to function under various rule regimes. 4) replace x I recommend (3),[conclusion] and point to the existence of VHLLs like Uniface (a Unix 4GL and its window system, from Inside Automation in Amsterdam) as a proof of concept. Postulate writing a serious high-level window-description and -action language in C, and amortize the effort of getting it malleable (hmmn, that begins to sound a lot like ``portable'') over many many simple applications written in it. Then consider writing an X application that allows one to interactively create and edit such, with a VHLL component, all to make it easy for ``ordinary'' application programmers to use a subset of its capabilities. With this, the apparent dichotomy between tools and rules disappears: they go back to being orthogonal components, like MIT intended. [coda] --dave (free X from the experts! give my users a 4GL) c-b -- David Collier-Brown, | davecb@Nexus.YorkU.CA, ...!yunexus!davecb or 72 Abitibi Ave., | {toronto area...}lethe!dave or just Willowdale, Ontario, | postmaster@{nexus.}yorku.ca CANADA. 416-223-8968 | work phone (416) 736-5257 x 22075