Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!inria!cnca!scarpell
From: scarpell@cnca-cam.fr (Claude Scarpelli)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: simple x interface tools from shell scripts?
Message-ID: <1600@cnca.cnca-cam.fr>
Date: 25 Jul 90 16:22:40 GMT
References: <1990Jul24.194548.22897@midway.uchicago.edu> <5177@harrier.ukc.ac.uk>
Reply-To: scarpell@cnca.cnca-cam.fr (Claude Scarpelli)
Organization: Caisse Nationale de Credit Agricole (CNCA), Paris
Lines: 47

In article <5177@harrier.ukc.ac.uk> rlh2@ukc.ac.uk (Richard Hesketh) writes:
>In article <1990Jul24.194548.22897@midway.uchicago.edu> max@spam.uchicago.edu () writes:
>>I am looking for x user interface development tools which can be called from 
>>shell scripts.  By this I mean programs like xmessage, yorn, etc. which can be
>>called from a shell script to x-ify simple prompting tasks and such like.  
>

Few month ago a program called xgen was posted in this newsgroup. Here
is a part of the README file associared with it :


Xgen - An X-window based applications generator.  Parses user generated
scripts which define an interactive user environment in X-window using
pop-up menus, messages, and user input fields.  Information collected from
users can be assembled into UNIX commands.

Developed as a Master's project in the Department of Civil Engineering, MIT,
by Antoine Awaida.  Funded by the US Army Corps' Construction Engineering
Research Laboratory, Champaign, Illinois.

OPERATIONAL STATUS:  Developed and running on SUN-3 machines using X11.3.
Not tested on any other platforms.  Prototype.  Will occasionally crash
if user input is in error.  Shareware.  Comments are welcome.  Please
mail to westerve@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu where information will be collected
for possible future upgrades.

DOCUMENTATION:  Internal to this directory see:
  application:   a sample input file to xgen; run via:   xgen application
  xgen.ms:       pass throught tbl(1) and troff(1) -ms

A master's thesis was generated for this project, but it is not available 
in digital form.  It contains similar information to xgen.doc (above)
with the inclusion of short discussions on 1) X, 2) GRASS (a geographical
information system), 3) design philosophy, and 4) implementation of the
application generator concepts.   Probably not very useful to most readers.
For a copy, mail westerve@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu.

[stuff deleted...]

Limitations
 1) Parsing takes place in two phases.  First an initial read of the
	application is made; information is stored away in structures.
	Then, during execution this information is analyzed.   Full analysis
	of the application should take place before execution.
 2) Despite the larger fixed buffers, users will likely encounter
	limitations in the form of overwritten memory and core dumps.
 3) Some logical testing is required as an integral part of applications.