From: wggabb@sdrc.COM (Rob Gabbard)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Motif vs Open-look vs X
Date: 10 Apr 92 14:33:45 GMT
Organization: SDRC, Cincinnati

From article <1992Apr9.165929.6784@news.eng.convex.com>, by datri@convex.com (Anthony A. Datri):
> Neither Motif nor OpenLook is a product, and neither can be shipped.  Do
> any of your vendors ship the color "Blue"?
> My understanding is the the O$F requires a license for their library on each
> *system*.  This means that you end up paying for the same license multiple
> times, even if you have a site license.
> Almost all vendors who ship XView or OSF/Motif library products can't
> understand shared libraries.

Motif is a product in as much as it is composed of a set of libraries, include
files, and a UIL compiler.  This product is produced by OSF for licensing in
either binary or source form.  Most of the major workstation vendors (HP, SGI,
IBM, DEC) supply this product with their operating system. I know that both HP
and SGI supply Motif shared libraries - I'm not sure about the others. Several
vendors (ICS and DEC to name two) also supply the components listed above for
Sun. I will admit that I am not sure about the costs if you decide to buy the
source and port it yourself - I believe the initial source license is $1000.
I've heard several people complain that the maintenance costs are high however.

Also remember, Open Look is simply a user interface specification.  There are
currently several implementations of this specification. XView is one Sun 
produced whose API closely resembles their older SunView window system's API.
This allowed the large base of SunView applications to easily migrate from 
the proprietary SunView window system to X. This also allowed Sun to say they
already had a huge amount of Open Look applications, claiming quick
victory over Motif when in reality they were just ports of SunView
applications. I believe at one point they even had a source code parser that
took in SunView code and spit out XView code. The large installed base of
SunView applications was the only impressive feat.  Their is also OLIT, the
Open Look Intrinsics Toolkit, which I believe was developed by AT&T with an
Xt based API. This is the toolkit that most X programmers would 
probably choose since it is Xt based and extensible (custom widgets, etc.)
There is also a NeWS based Open Look toolkit although I don't remember its
name or know any details about it. Alot of people get OpenWindows confused 
with OpenLook also.  All OpenWindows is comprised of is an an integrated set 
of OpenLook based (probably XView) desktop productivity tools. Remember when 
Sun said they wouldn't do anything but NeWS :-) ?

                Open Look	==	Motif Style Guide
XView, OLIT, NeWS toolkit	== 	Motif API
              OpenWindows	==	Visix Looking Glass, IXI.desktop,
					HP-VUE, other desktop managers.

-- 
The statements above are my own and do not neccesarily reflect the opinions 
of my employer.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Gabbard 				    Internet: rob.gabbard@sdrc.com
Technical Development Engineer                  UUCP: uunet!sdrc!rob.gabbard
Structural Dynamics Research Corporation