Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!chaph.usc.edu!alcor.usc.edu!jeenglis
From: jeenglis@alcor.usc.edu (A mutable language)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Motif vs OpenLook - a heretical thought?
Message-ID: <15146@chaph.usc.edu>
Date: 22 Feb 91 03:15:50 GMT
References: <8658@suns4.cel.co.uk> <11545@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Sender: news@chaph.usc.edu
Organization: A child, an elderly man, a Cuban
Lines: 42
Nntp-Posting-Host: alcor.usc.edu

david@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (David E. Smyth) writes:
>ajy@cel.co.uk (andrew yeomans) writes:
>>
>>I believe that the current window system API's are FAR too complex for 
>>effective use ...
>>
>>It seems to me that we should instead be debating which Interface Builder we 
>>should be using, as these offer the chance of:
>>
>>	a) Simplifying use of the window system, so that most of the available
>>	   functionality is easy to understand and use;
>>	b) Building the same user interface to run with either Motif or
>>	   OpenLook - without preventing use of 'special' functions in each.

>OK, class, guess what I'm going to recommend ;^)

>Use Wcl.  Then the documents your programmers will mostly have to use
>will be reduced to one: the widget set man pages.  And the way they
>need to learn about widget programming is nicer : learn about the
>widgets, then Xt, then X11 (many will never need to know anything
>beyond the widgets - they can use Wcl provided callbacks as examples,
>and just edit, instead of compose - a much easier job).

I don't know about this... Personally, I couldn't understand the
Athena widgets until I had read all about Xt, and much of Xt didn't
make any sense until I had read more about Xlib and the X protocol.
If I hadn't known a little bit about Xlib/X to start with, probably
NONE of Xt would have made any sense at first.

The learning curve for X programming is outrageously steep no 
matter how you go about learning it.  Tools like Wcl make 
programming easier, but there's still a lot to learn before
you can start writing code.

Not that I'm knocking Wcl -- it's definitely a step in the
right direction.

--
         But the fish won't be looking back at me and whimpering.
                                     -- St. Terri

             jeenglis@alcor.usc.edu // ignore this posting