Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!hp-pcd!hpcvlx!dex
From: dex@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Dex Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: ???? Which UIMS to use ????
Message-ID: <100920267@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com>
Date: 2 Jan 91 20:48:08 GMT
References: <1990Nov20.213313.15494@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Corvallis, OR, USA
Lines: 54


> > The "HP Interface Architect Developer's Guide" provides a step-by-step
> > procedure for adding additional widgets.
> But by "adding" you just mean I can use them in my code, right?  Above
> you say they can't be in the palette.

You can link you own code into Architect (creating a new binary).  This makes
your code (which could be custom widgets, application-specific functions,
etc.) directly available to the built-in interpreter.  For example, suppose
you wrote a custom Foo widget.  You would probably have these three files:

                      Foo.c     Foo.h    FooP.h

Also, suppose within this code you also established a convenience 
function called MyCreateFoo() for creating an instance of your Foo widget.
After creating a new "architect" binary by compiling and linking in your
Foo source code, you could interactively create an interface using the 
standard Motif widgets, then add instances of your Foo widget using 
direct calls to the interpreter.

> >          * Portable Motif code generation utility.
> What exactly is this?

It's a tool that generates C source code using Architect interface files 
(or interface files from any UIMX 1.0 Motif-based product).  Interface 
files are the intermediate storage format for user interfaces developed 
with Architect.

Rationale:
  C source code generated directly from Architect (or any other vendor's 
  version of UIMX) contains calls to the Ux convenience library.  This means 
  that this additional library must be available on the platform where you
  want to compile.  (The source code to this library is available as a 
  separate product form Hewlett-Packard.)

  If you want to avoid this library, you can use HP's Motif Code Generator
  utility (MotifGen) to convert Architect interface files into source code
  that contains only standard C, X, Xt, and Xm calls.  

> >          * Online help (provided via the HP VUE Help Manager).
> Does that mean you have to run HP VUE to use it?  What are the memory
> requirements?

The help manager is a part of HP VUE -- you can use only portions of
VUE (such as the help manager) if you wish.  The memory requirements for
the help manager should be about the same for any single Motif application.
If you plan to run the entire HP Visual User Environment, things are
pretty snappy on a 16MB Series 350.  If you have less than 12MB, things
tend to slow down due to swapping.

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