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From: dex@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Dex Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Re: MOTIF vs Athena. Practical to conditionalize?
Message-ID: <100920261@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com>
Date: 13 Dec 90 16:40:00 GMT
References: <7036@mitech.com>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Corvallis, OR, USA
Lines: 25


The desire to support multiple user interfaces for a single application
is certainly a real-world problem.  I've talked with several developers
that want to support a concurrent products on Motif, Presentation Manager, 
and MS Windows.

As mentioned in a previous response, implementation of some user 
interface components can vary widely.  Therefore, developers that force
good design upon themselves will come out ahead.  This calls for a
separation of user interface and application functionality, and some 
form of semantic communication between the two.  (Some would call this
"dialog management," but I'll stay away from the terminology war for
now.) 

My recommendation is that you develop your application in a modular fashion
so you can build versions with different user interfaces.  I would expect
that "ifdef-ing" different interface code within the same modules of code 
could get quite ugly, fast. 

                                  - Dex Smith
                                    Interface Technology Operation
                                    Hewlett-Packard Company
                                    Corvallis, Oregon

                                    dex@hpcvlx.hp.com