Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!mailrus!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!CS.ROCHESTER.EDU!becker
From: becker@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU (Tim Becker)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: widget creation philosophy
Message-ID: <8809302024.AA00641@teak.cs.rochester.edu>
Date: 30 Sep 88 20:24:30 GMT
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 13

I think a widget should be built as a general purpose reusable window 
application part (like command button, scroll bar, etc).  So, when R1
and R2 came out with load, clock, and biff widgets, I started wondering 
why my idea might be wrong.  (I looked at load and it'll do a bit more
than load avg, though not much).  Why wasn't xbiff designed with a
pixmap widget, for instance?  Why isn't there a widget that implements
a XImage?  Xclock and xload could use that more general widget type instead.

I'm no widget insider, but it seems that we have widgets with too much
special purpose functionality.  If I'm wrong, what am I missing?

Tim Becker.
becker@cs.rochester.edu