From: grp@Unify.com (Greg Pasquariello)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x.motif,comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: OPEN INTERFACE ?
Keywords: OPEN INTERFACE GUI developer
Date: 26 Aug 92 17:51:49 GMT
Organization: Unify Corporation (Sacramento)


In article <1992Aug25.161416.27216@mr.med.ge.com>, pandey@mr.med.ge.com (Arvind Pandey 4-6847 MRCE) writes:
> 
> Has anyone outhere used a product "OPEN INTERFACE"
> from Neuron Data (Palo Alto CA ).
> 
> They claim to provide a package so that you can develop
> your GUI to run on various platforms and Windows (eg DOS,
> UNIX, VMS ..... ).
> 
> To me it seems that to be such a widely portable GUI,
> there must be some limitations somewhere. 
> 
> So does anyone out there know what gives ? Any actual
> users of this product.


Generally, there are two type of interface independent toolkits;  those
that abstract the various other toolkits, and those that implement the 
interface independently of the other toolkits.  OI is of the latter persuasion.
It is built directly upon X/MS-Windows/Mac and implements the appropriate user
interface directly.

As far as I know, at this time there are two toolkits like this available.
OI is one of them, the other is Galaxy by Visix.  Both of these toolkits
are FAR superior to XT based toolkits IMHO.  For one thing they provide
all the normal functionality that you want, but they are MUCH more flexible
in terms of customization, extension, etc.

Some people will claim that these toolkits are inferior simply because the
"emulate" a particular user interface rather than make use of the widget
set.  That's crap.  With the exception of Motif, most other user interfaces
have multiple toolkits available.  Open Look, for example, has OLIT and XView.
Neither of these is considered an emulator.  Rather, they are different 
implementations of the same user interface.  I am less clear on what defines
a motif interface.  Is it a specification or is it the API?

Regardless, both toolkits do a good job of adhering to the user interface
specs.  An Open Look application looks and works like an Open Look application
should.  A Windows application looks and works like a Windows application 
should.  And so on.

If you have done any work trying to extend widgets, or make them behave 
differently than the default, you will appreciate the flexibility of OI or
Galaxy.  

As part of our current development effort, I evaluated many of the
cross-GUI toolkits available.  My evaluation narrowed to Galaxy and OI
because both are technically far superior to every other existing 
GUI toolkit on the market today.  The Neuron Data toolkit was quite
appealing in that it provided most of the GUI functionality I needed
in both the API and the GUI Design tool.  The Galaxy toolkit however
provided significantly richer GUI functionality as well as a much
richer system independent layer (OS, File system, client/server, etc).
IMHO the Galaxy toolkit is the single best gui AND portability toolkit
on the market today.

Regardless of what you choose, I would strongly recommend that you evaluate
a number of the toolkits available before you choose one.  No one toolkit
is right for everyone.

BTW, I am not affiliated with anybody mentioned above.  I only answer to
Unify Corp.  If you have any further questions, you can feel free to mail
me at the address below.


> 
> - arvind
> 
> Arvind Pandey
> pandey@rainy.mr.med.ge.com
> 
> GE Medical Systems
> 

--
Greg Pasquariello   	grp@unify.com 	        Sometimes you're the windshield
Unify Corporation	   or			Sometimes you're the bug.
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Newsgroups: comp.windows.x.motif