Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!ti-csl.csc.ti.COM!ekberg
From: ekberg@ti-csl.csc.ti.COM
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Wanted: Pointers to materials describing extensions to X (long)
Message-ID: <9006102001.AA28528@osage.csc.ti.com>
Date: 10 Jun 90 20:01:20 GMT
References: <1990Jun8.083647.10924@tsa.co.uk>
Sender: ekberg@osage.csc.ti.com
Organization: The Internet
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From: mcsun!ukc!slxsys!tsa!domo@uunet.uu.net  (Dominic Dunlop)
 > Some X toolkits written in C++ have appeared.  As a C hacker long gone
 > rusty, I have to admit to a yawning lack of knowledge of these, and
 > would love to see a taxonomy.  They ought to go a long way to answering
 > the criticism of the C language interface to X.  Do they in fact?  And
 > is there an ``official'' C++ binding to Xlib?

Yes, X toolkits written in C++ do exist.  The two I have most knowledge of are
the InterViews toolkit developed at Stanford and the C++ interface to Motif
developed at the University of Lowell.

InterViews defines an interface to a window system, which happens to be X,
using much of the C++ language to obtain its many features.  The user doesn't
know that the underlying window system is X.  It has been stated that one could
unplug the InterViews code which talks to Xlib and plug in code which talks to
another window system.

The C++ interface to Motif developed at ULowell is more than just a simple C++
interface to Motif.  It actually defines C++ classes and methods that allow the
developer to interface to the Motif widgets using C++ instead of Xt.

 > Are there de facto standards (or, indeed any existing practice) for
 > interfacing X to other languages such as Ada and FORTRAN?

ULowell has sent me an information sheet which mentions their Ada and FORTRAN
interfaces to Motif.  I occasionally see messages on mail.x-ada about an Xlib
interface in Ada and have seen passing reference to wanting the same thing for
FORTRAN.

Don't leave out my favorite language:  Lisp.  There has been for some time a
Common Lisp interface to X called CLX.  This is the Lisp equivalent to Xlib.
There is also an Xt and toolkit equivalent written in Common Lisp.  If you want
more information on these let me know.

  -- tom (aisle C-4Q), ekberg@csc.ti.com