Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!apple!bionet!agate!pasteur!ames!elroy!jane!alan
From: alan@jane.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Alan S. Mazer)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Anyone have a reading list for an X11 novice?
Summary: A suggested approach...
Keywords: X11, Novice, Documentation
Message-ID: <11075@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Date: 9 Nov 88 20:42:56 GMT
References: <4104@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu>
Sender: news@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
Lines: 30

In article <4104@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu>, ehrlich@shire.cs.psu.edu (Dan Ehrlich) writes:
> Can anyone provide me with a
> list of documentation, books, etcetra, that an X11 novice should be
> reading. I have printed out the Xlib and XToolKit C-Library Interface
> documentation, but they assume you already know what they are talking
> about.  I am looking for introductory material with plenty of
> examples.  So far I am aware of the two volume set from O'Reilly and
> Associates, and a forthcoming book from Prentice Hall.  I will
> summarize back to the list any information I get.  Thanks in advance.

I was in this position not too long ago.  My suggested approach is to read the
following in order:

	The Rosenthal paper (so that you basically have an idea of what's
			    happening)
	The Widgets manual
	The X Toolkit manual
	Xt Widgets/Toolkit source
	X books (O'Reilly, etc)

It also helps (at least, this was my approach) to take a widget from the
standard library and try a modification.  I tried to take the Text widget and
make a similar widget (a subclass of Text) for a project I'm working on here,
and I was amazed that after doing what I thought would be a very simple
modification, I had worked my way through almost all of the X Toolkit manual
and it actually made sense :-).  The O'Reilly books are great and I've got
them, but it seems that most stuff can be done at the Toolkit level.

-- Alan    ..!{ames,cit-vax}!elroy!alan         * "But, seriously, what can
           alan@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov                 go wrong?"