From: gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Subject: Re: Multiple platform GUI toolkits/builders
Organization: Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 22:05:21 GMT

In article <1993Jan6.160102.22485@octel.com> ksiden@octel.com (Kathy Sidenblad) writes:

>I am sure that the subject of portable
>toolkits is an FAQ, but I am interested too.


Yes, it is. I'ave been looking for someone to take over the FAQ for
many months, but no one has done so. Here's a copy:

Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,news.answers
Subject: Comp.windows.misc Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Followup-To: comp.windows.misc
Summary: information on miscellaneous windowing systems

Archive-name: windows-misc-faq
Last-modified: 1992/07/17

Welcome to comp.windows.misc! This is a newsgroup for discussions of
miscellaneous windowing systems that don't have their own groups.

Examples of windowing systems that DO have their own groups are
Microsoft Windows, the X Windows System, NeWS, and PC GEOS. Examples
of windowing systems & multi-system libraries that don't have their
own groups and thus go here are MGR, 8 1/2, and STDWIN.

comp.windows.misc is also a good place for discussions involving
several window systems and discussions which are independent of any
particular window system.

Examples:

- Toolkits implemented on top of multiple window systems (XVT, Nexpert, ...)
- Porting from one window system to another (e.g. MS Windows to OPEN LOOK).
- General GUI design (e.g. modeless vs. modefull).
- General technology (e.g. effective backing store).

Discussions along the lines of "My window system is better than your
window system" are welcome in alt.religion.computers, but rarely
generate useful conclusions.

List of Questions:

1) Where do I find information about Microsoft Windows?

Windowing Systems:

2) MGR
3) 8 1/2
4) What other windowing systems exist?

Multi-GUI libraries:

 5) STDWIN
 6) XVT
 7) JYACC Application Manager
 8) Open Interface
 9) Aspect
10) Galaxy

----------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Where do I find information about Microsoft Windows?

Try the groups under comp.os.ms-windows. There used to be a
comp.windows.ms group, but the new groups were voted in around May 8,
1992, partially because MS Windows users were posting to
comp.windows.misc and comp.windows.news thinking they were
Microsoft-related groups. Please don't cross-post MS Windows material
to these groups.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

2) What is MGR?

MGR is a windowing system developed by Steve Uhler of Bellcore. It
supports a variety of hardware platforms and operating systems. MGR
can send graphical commands over serial connections, so networking
over TCP/IP or modem connections is easy.

MGR may be obtained from bellcore.com via anonymous ftp from the
pub/mgr directory. Versions are available for:

3B1 Unix PC
Atari ST / mint (& multitos?)
DEC MIPS / Ultrix
Macintosh / System+Finder (not multifinder, though)
PC Clone / Xenix
PC Clone / Linux
PC Clone / Minix (16 or 32 bit)
PC Clone / PC-Choices
Sun Sparcstation / SunOS

Those of you used to the feature-full environment of X may be a bit
disappointed with MGR. What it provides you with is a simple desktop
inside of which you can open multiple windows, which can display
graphics. These windows don't come with fancy gadgets or buttons
around the outside, and you don't have fancy libraries to construct
fancy applications with fancy buttons. Instead, you have to program on
the bare metal. Many people consider this a feature, not a bug ;-)

ToAdd: MGR mailing lists? Are there any?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

3) What is 8 1/2?

8 1/2 is the windowing system written by Rob Pike for Plan 9, the new
OS from Bell Labs. It is not freely available; in fact, it hasn't even
been ported to Unix yet since it depends on some of the interesting
features of Plan 9's filesystem. In any case, it's a very interesting
design. You can ftp a paper describing it from research.att.com:
dist/plan9doc/4.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

4) What other windowing systems exist?

Most single-OS windowing systems are discussed on the newsgroups for
the vendor: Amiga Intuition, and the Acorn Archimedes windowing
systems are examples of this. NeXTStep is discussed on
comp.soft-sys.nextstep. GEM is technically available for the IBM PC,
Atari ST, and X via a library but I believe only the Atari ST has a
large number of developers, so comp.sys.atari.st.tech would be a good
place to ask GEM questions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

5) What is STDWIN?

STDWIN is a free, simple windowing library designed to provide a
simple high-level programming interface to a large number of windowing
systems. The author is Guido van Rossum. Supported windowing systems
include:

X11R4
MS-DOS character-mode
Macintosh
Atari ST (obsolete but not that hard to update)

STDWIN is used in the Python language environment. You can ftp both
STDWIN and Python from one of the following sites:

Europe:

hp4nl.nluug.nl (IP address 192.16.202.2) pub/windows & 
mcsun.eu.net (IP address 192.16.202.1)    pub/programming/languages

North America:

wuarchive.wustl.edu (IP address 128.252.135.4) usenet/alt.sources

gatekeeper.dec.com (IP address 16.1.0.2) pub/misc & pub/misc/python

----------------------------------------------------------------------

6) What is XVT?

XVT is a commercial toolkit that lets you write a single application
that can run under the following platforms:

MS Windows / DOS
Presentation Manager / OS/2
X/Motif / lots of Unix boxes
Open Look / ditto
character-based terminals / ditto
Macintosh

The system sometimes provides only least-common-denominator support
(i.e. all mice have only one button, because the Mac mouse has only
one button), and sometimes provides additional abilities, such as the
capability of printing any screen, which is provided by the Mac native
windowing system but not by X. You can also combine calls with direct
calls to the native windowing system.

There are articles about XVT in the June 1991 issue of Byte magazine,
and the May 1991 issue of Unix World.

The company address is:

   XVT Software Inc.               EMATEK (Germany and Switzerland)
   1800 30th Street                Subbelrather Strasse 17
   Box 17665                       5000 Koln 30
   Boulder, CO 80308

    (303) 443-4223                 Tel  (0221) 51 2074
FAX (303) 443-0969                 Fax  (0221) 52 9666

There is also a C++ version (XVT++) in beta, as well as Open Look
support on the way.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

7) What is the JYACC Application Manager (JAM)?

JAM is supposedly a commercial 4GL tool which can be used to generate
GUIs. It is available under Motif, Microsoft Windows, Open Look,
character-based, and RSN for the Macintosh.

The company address is:

JYACC
116 John Street
New York NY 10032

----------------------------------------------------------------------

8) What is Open Interface?

Open Interface is supposedly a cross-platform GUI builder. It supports
Motif, Open Look, Presentation Manager, Microsoft Windows, and
character terminal support is pending.

The company address is:

Neuron Data Inc.
156 University Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94301

----------------------------------------------------------------------

9) What is Aspect?

Aspect is supposedly a cross-platform GUI development system. It
supports Motif, Open Look, Presentation Manager, Microsoft Windows,
the Macintosh, and character terminals.

The company address is:

Open Inc.
655 Southpointe Court Suite 100
Colorado Springs CO 80906

----------------------------------------------------------------------

10) What is Galaxy?

Galaxy is a application development environment with a GUI builder and
visual editing tools. It supports Motif & Open Look, with Microsoft
Windows and Mac ports coming soon.

The company address is:

Visix Software Inc.
11440 Commerce park Drive
Reston VA 22091

(800) 832-8668

----------------------------------------------------------------------

ToAdd: All the windowing systems I'm missing. I don't really want
interfaces that run on just one piece of hardware or just one OS,
unless they have freely-available source code or documentation that
people can learn from and use.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is only the start of a FAQ for comp.windows.misc. Since I wrote
it off the top of my head, it's very incomplete and parts of it are
probably wrong, since I haven't looked at MGR or STDWIN for a couple
of years, and I've never seen 8 1/2 at all. Please help fill in the
holes. Short reviews of the commercial libraries would be nice, as
would be phone numbers for the companies.
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x