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From: jch@stardent.COM (Jan Hardenbergh)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: PEX Information Wanted
Message-ID: <9103052005.AA04122@bacall.Stardent.COM>
Date: 5 Mar 91 20:04:50 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 46


Paul Martz write:
> In article <gregc.667779263@zeno.mmwb.ucsf.edu>, gregc@cgl.ucsf.edu (Greg Couch) writes:
> > Does the PEX standard specify how the PHIGS API and X work together?
> > Specifically, if you want to use X events for input, could you still
> > use PHIGS for picking?
> > 
> > The current DEC PHIGS product provides such a method, a pphittest
> > function to do picking in an PHIGS output-only workstation.  And I've
> > heard that in IBM's graPHIGS, you can pass an X event to the graPHIGS
> > widget for picking.
> > 
> > Please tell me that this will be standardized soon.
> > 
> > 	- Greg Couch
> > 	gregc@cgl.ucsf.edu
> 
> In addition to the good points Rich Thomson has already made
> concerning this issue, I just wanted to add that the PEX protocol
> itself makes no rules concerning input. It provides some requests to
> ease the implementation of picking, but how picking is implemented is
> entirely up to the API library. If your favorite PEX-based PHIGS won't
> let you use both PHIGS picking and X input events at the same time,
> that's a restriction the API implementors have made, not the PEX
> protocol itself.

Even non-PEX based PHIGS products sometimes have an escape for picking.
In the next issue of Computer Graphics Forum there is a paper discussing
integrating PHIGS and User Interface Systems. The thesis is to ignore
the ancient UI technology of PHIGS and to provide for the UI/Application
to pick programmatically.

> I believe the PEX-SI has indeed made this restriction (i.e., PHIGS
> input and X input may not be intermixed) but I may be wrong... Anyone
> from the SI team read this? Marty? Cheryl? Tom? Lisa?

No, the PEX-SI has an escape for picking - just no man page for it.  It
is ESCAPE -4.  Hopefully, someone wrote the man page it just did not get
distributed.

> Also, FYI, the PEX protocol defines no new events.

At least, not until PEX 6.0. (Workstation initiatated traversal occured).

-Jan "YON" Hardenbergh       jch@stardent.com         (508)-371-9810x261
Stardent Computer, 6 N.E. Tech Center, 521 Virginia Rd,Concord, MA 01742