[comp.windows.open-look] Completeness of O'Reilly and Heller

jipping@cs.hope.edu (Mike Jipping) (12/27/90)

In article <22135@mvis1.com>, frose@ (Flavio Rose) writes:

> Some questions on XView that I can't seem to figure out from
> the O'Reilly manual (next step is read the source code... or
> is there some other manual?).

This brings up a question that nags me a lot.  There is a significant
amount of XView functionality and information that Heller does not
provide in his "XView Programming Manual".  For example, you won't find
the PANEL_LIST_CHOOSE_NONE attribute anywhere in that book.  Many times I
have used Sun's GUIDE tool for constructing an interface, and spent time
looking at the source code it generates, because it uses code I have not
seen in Heller.

This would not be troublesome if Sun included an exhaustive, complete
alternative source for the XView toolkit.  I could accept Heller's book
and a good "programming manual" and Sun's edition as the "reference
guide".  BUT...all we get from Sun is Heller's book, which is incomplete.

Does anyone have a solution to this?

      Mike Jipping
      Hope College Department of Computer Science
      jipping@cs.hope.edu  (BITNET: JIPPING@HOPE)

      "The 70's are over old man.  Take your mood ring and
       go home."
                                   -- Dana Gould

argv@turnpike.Eng.Sun.COM (Dan Heller) (12/30/90)

In article <1990Dec27.122147.20769@cs.hope.edu> jipping@cs.hope.edu writes:
> > Some questions on XView that I can't seem to figure out from
> > the O'Reilly manual (next step is read the source code... or
> > is there some other manual?).
...
> This would not be troublesome if Sun included an exhaustive, complete
> alternative source for the XView toolkit.  I could accept Heller's book
> and a good "programming manual" and Sun's edition as the "reference
> guide".  BUT...all we get from Sun is Heller's book, which is incomplete.
> 
> Does anyone have a solution to this?

O'Reilly currently has no plans for providing an XView reference
book and Sun is not planning on providing one either.  I cannot be
more specific about this, but I can recommend UTSL (Use The Source,
Luke) for particular problems.

For the particular case about the PANEL_LIST_* attributes discussed
here, those attrs were not available at the time the book was written.
I had to be through with the book 2 months before first shipment.  A
lot of code got added in the interim including much of the panel list
stuff.  Generally, this shouldn't be too much of a problem, tho.

--
dan
----------------------------------------------------
O'Reilly && Associates   argv@sun.com / argv@ora.com
Opinions expressed reflect those of the author only.

dale@intran.UUCP (Dale Mensch) (01/11/91)

In article <1990Dec27.122147.20769@cs.hope.edu>, jipping@cs.hope.edu (Mike Jipping) writes:
> In article <22135@mvis1.com>, frose@ (Flavio Rose) writes:
> 
> > Some questions on XView that I can't seem to figure out from
> > the O'Reilly manual (next step is read the source code... or
> > is there some other manual?).
> 
> For example, you won't find
> the PANEL_LIST_CHOOSE_NONE attribute anywhere in that book. 
> 
> This would not be troublesome if Sun included an exhaustive, complete
> alternative source for the XView toolkit.  I could accept Heller's book
> and a good "programming manual" and Sun's edition as the "reference
> guide".  BUT...all we get from Sun is Heller's book, which is incomplete.
> 
> Does anyone have a solution to this?
> 
I thought that this rang a bell.  In the OpenWindows 1.0 manual set, I 
found "XView 1.0 Reference Manual: Summary of the XView API", which doesn't
seem to be in the 1.0.1 or 2.0 manual set.  (It is 277 pages long- not the
same as the 157 page "XView Version 2 Reference Manual: Converting SunView
Applications".)

PANEL_LIST_CHOOSE_NONE is briefly described in section 3.21 Panel List
Attributes, and in Chapter 4-Summary Tables.

I have no clue whatever why this is no longer in the manual set, but I'm
sure glad that I never throw anything away!  Of course, how much has changed
between XView 1.0 and Version 2, I've no idea.
-----
"Half guesses, half supposition, all disclaimed."
Dale Mensch-Xerox Corp/Intran Operation.-Mpls. MN.- uunet!intran!dale