Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!clyde.concordia.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watcgl!rhbartls
From: rhbartls@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Richard Bartels)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: Motif or Open Look Development Systems on IRIS; When?
Message-ID: <1990Oct8.151853.4852@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Date: 8 Oct 90 15:18:53 GMT
References: <6985921@um.cc.umich.edu>
Organization: University of Waterloo
Lines: 31

In article <6985921@um.cc.umich.edu> Tim_Buxton@UM.CC.UMICH.EDU writes:
>
>  We have the Xlib X development system from SGI.  We want something
>higher-level, such as Motif or Open Look, as soon as possible.  is
>SGI offering these in the near future?  Are Third and Fourth Parties
>offering them?  .......

Get it touch with Visual Edge Software Ltd., 514 332 6430.
They have UIMX, a Motif-based user interface management system
that runs on the Iris.  It provides an editor which you use to edit
widgets graphically and associate them with callbacks.  You can set
a large variety of properties for the interface, and you can
interpret the C callback code to preview the interface before
compiling.  X knows nothing about the GL library at present, so
3-D windows must still be handled separately from X.  This means that
you can influence the flow of your program through X widgets, but
picking and 3-D display still take place separately through GL windows.
A minor problem only.  The only annoyance is in window repair.
A 3-D window moved over a widget, or a widget over a 3-D window,
and then moved away, will leave a mis-colored screen fragment
that must be repaired manually (e.g. by iconify-deiconify).
No problem if the screen real estate is set up judiciously and
kept from cross-conflicts.

Visual Edge has a scientific visualization package called VIA that makes
use of GL windows with Motiv-widget frames.  It is quite impressive.

My understanding is that Visual Edge is working with SGI to offer UIMX as
an SGI-available product, but I may be wrong.

-Richard