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From: nazgul@alphalpha.com (Kee Hinckley)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x.motif,comp.windows.open-look,comp.windows.x,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Question for net.views column in UNIX Today!
Message-ID: <1991Apr3.052058.6309@alphalpha.com>
Date: 3 Apr 91 05:20:58 GMT
References: <9104020203.AA00284@bud.cs.ubc.ca.ubc.ca> <14566@ulysses.att.com>
Organization: asi
Lines: 49

In article <14566@ulysses.att.com> cjc@ulysses.att.com (Chris Calabrese) writes:
>So far, most of the commercial applications I've seen running
>under X Windows haven't used Motif or Open Look.

Not suprising given how recently either of the toolkits has matured
enough to be usable.  I'd be very suprised, however, to see any new,
general purpose applications that didn't use one or the other.

>If a commercial application writer really wants to target Motif and
>Open Look, they should use something like the Solbourne toolkit which
>provides both Motif and Open Look with the same binary (this is not a

If Solbourne really provided all of Motif then this might be reasonable,
but in fact it doesn't provide as much as I would like to be able
to use and is furthermore larger than the Motif binary (hard to
imagine I know).  Perhaps when it matures (I understand the newest
release is somewhat better).  In any case I've stated my opinion on
the usability of "virtual" toolkits before.

>As far as university software, I would expect it to be built on the
>best of the freely available toolkits.  This instantly rules out both

Why?  Universities buy lots of software, and both toolkits are of
course discounted for universities.

>Did it cross anybody's mind that Motif was developed _after_ Open Look
>and that OSF didn't even consider Open Look when they made their GUI
>selections?

No, because it isn't true.  The only Open Look toolkit available at
the time Motif was specified was a very early version of AT&T's toolkit.
It was in fact submitted to the OSF and was not chosen.  I've discussed
the reasons for that on comp.windows.x in prior discussions.

>I guess that stuff's really important in the scheme of things, but I had
>to say it.  Personally, I can't stand the way Motif looks or feels.
>It just isn't as well thought out as Open Look.  On the other hand,
I think the default Motif look is pretty bad, however once tailored I
like it a lot.  The way most vendors run it with their demo applications
it's pretty apalling though.

-- 
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I'm not sure which upsets me more: that people are so unwilling to accept
responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate
everyone else's.