kory@avatar.com (Kory Hamzeh) (04/23/91)
We are about to start writing several very large applications using X11R4
with Motif on Sun Sparstations.
I would like is to hear from people which have experience with
interactive application generator for Motif. These are programs
which generate C code and/or resource files.
I would also like to hear about your personal opinion about application
generators.
Thanks,
--kory
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Kory Hamzeh UUCP: avatar!kory or ..!uunet!avatar!kory
INTERNET: kory@avatar.com yrjola@hkkk.fi (Matti Yrjola) (04/29/91)
In <1991Apr23.051543.431@avatar.com> kory@avatar.com (Kory Hamzeh) writes: >We are about to start writing several very large applications using X11R4 >with Motif on Sun Sparstations. We are building a (student) information system on HP hardware (HP9000s, HP3000s) using Motif and X-terminals. >I would like is to hear from people which have experience with >interactive application generator for Motif. These are programs >which generate C code and/or resource files. We use Interface Architect from HP, which is an interactive Motif-interface "generator". IA uses Motif widgets and gadgets as objects from which to build the user interface. IA has two modes: design and test. In DESIGN mode the developer paints widgets on screen and they appear just like they will under Motif. Created widgets can be modified interactively by clicking and dragging (size and position) and through popup-menus (resources and properties). In TEST mode (toggle a button) the widgets come alive very nicely. IA has a C-interpreter so that program code can be loaded in while running IA. User code can be added to the interface initialization code and to callbacks. In test mode you can ACTUALLY test the application. Interface Architect uses a convenience library to access Motif and the code generated contains calls to functions in the Architect library. In order to generate code that does not rely on this library the code must be run trough MotifGen utility program. My experiences with IA have been mainly good. The program seems to be robust and easy to use. Most of the problems I have had, have been due to my limited experience with X-windows and Motif (about 5 months). I just don't know what each resource or property does. There are some things that you can't test inside Architect, for example children of convenience dialogs are created dynamically by the Motif toolkit and Architect has no way of managing them directly. The children must be accessed with Motif "get child" convenience functions. Object orientation seems to pay off - we got the first version of our application running in two months with no previous Motif or X Windows eXperience. IA generated progams that use it's convenience library are quite big, around 1 MB or so, but I haven't had time to test the MotifGen utility yet. I hope I got most of this correct, all errors are mine. >I would also like to hear about your personal opinion about application >generators. I think that application generators are well suited for developing user interfaces in windowing environments. Most of the application generators that I have seen force the programmer to implement the vision that the developer of that particular application generator had. So far I haven`t had that feeling with the IA :-). Anybody else using IA out there? I would like to know. -- ----------------------------------------------------- I did it M M Y Y Matti Yrjola, Helsinki School of Economics, Computer Center ! MM MM Y Y Runeberginkatu 14-16, 00100 HELSINKI, FINLAND ! M M M Y INTERNET: yrjola@hkkk.fi ! M M waY
danr@bcsfse.boeing.com (Dan Richardson) (05/14/91)
It has been my experience that MotifGen does a pretty good job. There are some minor snags, but over all, it does a very good job.
achan@sparkle.tdd.sj.nec.com (Amy Chan) (05/15/91)
In article <673@bcsfse.boeing.com> danr@bcsfse.boeing.com (Dan Richardson) writes: >It has been my experience that MotifGen does a pretty good job. There are some >minor snags, but over all, it does a very good job. Where can I obtain 'MotifGen'? Thanks. Amy Chan NEC America, Inc. achan@tdd.sj.nec.com -- Amy Chan | E-Mail: NEC America | INET: achan@tdd.sj.nec.com 110 Rio Robles | UUCP: ...{decwrl,oliveb}!necsun!achan San Jose, CA 95134 |
tay@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Mike Taylor) (05/17/91)
> Where can I obtain 'MotifGen'?
MotifGen is a component of HP Interface Architect. Architect is HP's
version of UIMX which is developed by Visual Edge in Montreal Canada.
A problem for some developers is that the code that is generated by
UIMX is heavily dependent on a UIMX library. HP has added a tool
called MotifGen which eliminates this dependency.
Peace,
Mike Taylor
Current Products Engineering & Online
Interface Technology Operation
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