Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!wuarchive!csus.edu!ucdavis!csusac!unify!openlook!openlook-request From: openlook-request@openlook Newsgroups: comp.windows.open-look Subject: Re: HELP! I need tool to make tools Message-ID: Date: 11 Jun 91 14:20:37 GMT Sender: news@Unify.Com Lines: 36 uunet!ECE.UCSD.EDU!dlou (Dennis Lou) writes: > Is there a tool that helps me make tools by dragging and dropping? For XView, on Suns you can get devGUIDE (I think they so spell it) pretty cheaply, which is about what it's worth. You can paint things and spit out C to be modified. This general way of working falls apart when you later want to modify the user interface after heavily modifying the original code templates. (Note I'm not saying GUIDE is any better or worse than the dozen or so other paint-the-screen-and-spit- out-a-template programs.) If GUIDE doesn't come with Open Windows, I think it is less than $300. Sun's support of OLIT doesn't extend to devGUIDE, even though there seems to be no technical reason. On the other hand, for [34]86 machines you can get Open Look Express from AT&T (Computer Systems Division, not Unix Software Laboratories). It's a version of UIMX for Open Look, which means you have a screen painter for widgets AND a C interpreter,` and can build a functional application directly from the tool (compiled or interpreted). On the other hand, it costs money. (This is the same program as HP's Interactive Architect, which is for Motif, naturally.) I don't know the current price, but at one time it was around $2000. If you create apps for others and your time and theirs is not free, it's worth it. Failing either of those, try Wcl, the Widget Creation Library (available from export.lcs.mit.edu or uunet). It adds a couple of converters to Xt (for String to widget class and String to Callback) and lets you specify the entire widget hierarchy and callbacks in the resource file. You need write NO widget creation code. Basically your chores are to write callbacks. Of course, you do have to understand resources. Once you know what you're doing, this approach may be faster to finished application than a painter, since you never merge with template code. An interactive developer partly based on Wcl is available, called Dirt (also on export). It needs some modification to work with OLIT.