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From: jan@ECHO.CANBERRA.EDU.AU (Jan Newmarch)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x.motif
Subject: Re: Questions from a beginning Motif programmer
Message-ID: <9011130308.AA02858@golf.canberra.edu.au>
Date: 13 Nov 90 18:08:05 GMT
References: <1990Nov12.184753.10051@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
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Lines: 41

> 
> 	XDrawString(display, main_window, main_gc, 5, 45, "Welcome to Mshell", 17); 
> 	XDrawString(display, main_window, main_gc, 5, 65, time_str,
> strlen(time_str) - 1); 
> 
> 	XtMainLoop();			/* get and dispatch events */
> --------------------------------------------
> 
> 	My question really has to do with the my program's main
> 	window. It seems that the drawable I want to pass to graphics routines
> 	is 
> 
> 	main_window = XtWindow(form);		/* main window */
> 
> is that right? I don't really understand why (although it seems

I won't attempt to answer all questions because I don't have time or 
knowledge about them all. This one looks fairly typical though. In brief,
don't try to do Xlib operations on Motif objects. The `form' is for 
geometry management, so just use it for that. Don't try drawing into it
because it wasn't designed for that. The things that you can place text
into are labels, text widgets, lists and drawing areas. To place text into 
a label, use the labelString resource. To place text into a text widget,
use the XmTextSetString function. To place things in lists, use the
items resource. For none of these do you use the Xlib stuff. The drawing area
is yours to play with, and for these you should probably use things like 
XmDrawString. I would replace the form with a drawing area and retry the 
rest - maybe some of your other problems would just go away.
Hope this little bit helps.

+----------------------+---+
  Jan Newmarch, Information Science and Engineering,
  University of Canberra, PO Box 1, Belconnen, Act 2616
  Australia. Tel: (Aust) 6-2522422. Fax: (Aust) 6-2522999

  ACSnet: jan@ise.canberra.edu.au
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