Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watdragon!watsol!tbray
From: tbray@watsol.waterloo.edu (Tim Bray)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Using Xlib instead of toolkits
Message-ID: <15326@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: 23 Jul 89 19:24:24 GMT
References: <3437@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu. <1210014@hpfcmgw.HP.COM.
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: tbray@watsol.waterloo.edu (Tim Bray)
Organization: New OED Project, U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 24


   You should be using a toolkit in any case.  Xlib is not the right level
   of abstraction for building entire serious applications, unless you are a
   masochist, or a toolkit implementer.
 
 Or want to do any of a number of things that are difficult or impossible
 with Xtk; or want to make a lean and mean application.
 
Or think X is probably the way to go, but aren't yet convinced which 
toolkit/widget set is going to be the right one to use, and can't wait for
the dust to settle.

We have just finished doing a serious text display and manipulation
application in Xlib, and while we found the interface hard to *learn*, we
thought it was OK to *use*.  There were definitely some things we needed
to do with which toolkits would have caused all sorts of trouble.
Obviously, we layered on some standard packaging for getting a window
displayed, abstracting input events, etc.  Anybody else with similar
experience?

So in using Xlib, are we like the dumb people who insist on using assembler
instead of C, or like the smart people who insist on using C instead of Ada?

Tim Bray, New Oxford English Dictionary Project, U of Waterloo, Ontario