ch24.htm

linux-unix130.linux.and.unix.ebooks130 linux and unix ebookslinuxLearning Linux - Collection of 12 E

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">
<SCRIPT>
<!--
function displayWindow(url, width, height) {
        var Win = window.open(url,"displayWindow",'width=' + width +
',height=' + height + ',resizable=1,scrollbars=yes');
}
//-->
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>

 -->



 





 








<H1></H1>



<UL>

	<LI><A HREF="#Heading1">- 24 -</A>

	<UL>

		<LI><A HREF="#Heading2">OPEN LOOK and OpenWindows</A>

		<UL>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading3">What Is OPEN LOOK?</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading4">TIP</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading5">TIP</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading6">TIP</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading7">olwm and olvwm</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading8">Getting Started with OpenWindows</A>

			<UL>

				<LI><A HREF="#Heading9">Starting OpenWindows</A>

			</UL>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading10">TIP</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading11">Listing 24.1. A sample .openwin-init file</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading12

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading13">TIP</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading14">NOTE</A>

			<UL>

				<LI><A HREF="#Heading15">FIGURE 24.1.</A>

			</UL>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading16">SELECT and MENU</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading17">TIP</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading18">TIP</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading19">Working Within OpenWindows and olwm</A>

			<UL>

				<LI><A HREF="#Heading20">FIGURE 24.2.</A>

			</UL>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading21">TIP</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading22">Menus</A>

			<UL>

				<LI><A HREF="#Heading23">The Workspace Menu</A>

				<UL>

					<LI><A HREF="#Heading24">FIGURE 24.3.</A>

					<LI><A HREF="#Heading25">FIGURE 24.4.</A>

					<LI><A HREF="#Heading26">FIGURE 24.5.</A>

					<LI><A HREF="#Heading27">FIGURE 24.6.</A>

				</UL>

			</UL>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading28">NOTE</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading29">Configuring Menus for OpenWindows</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading30">Listing 24.2. The default .openwin-menu file</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading31

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading32">The Virtual Desktop</A>

			<UL>

				<LI><A HREF="#Heading33">The Virtual Desktop Manager</A>

				<UL>

					<LI><A HREF="#Heading34">FIGURE 24.7.</A>

				</UL>

			</UL>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading35">NOTE</A>

			<UL>

				<LI><A HREF="#Heading36">Working with Virtual Windows</A>

			</UL>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading37">NOTE</A>

			<UL>

				<LI><A HREF="#Heading38">FIGURE 24.8.</A>

			</UL>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading39">Sticky Windows</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading40">NOTE</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading41">NOTE</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading42">Resources in OpenWindows</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading43">Using Text-Editing Features</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading44">NOTE</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading45">TIP</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading46">Support for Left-Handed Users</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading47">CAUTION</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading48">Troubleshooting</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading49">TIP</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading50">Environment Variables</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading51">Special Help for Sun Workstation Users</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading52">Internet Sites for XView</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading53">NOTE</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading54">Where to Go for More Information</A>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading55">Summary</A>

		</UL>

	</UL>

</UL>



<P>

<HR SIZE="4">



<H2 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading1<FONT COLOR="#000077">- 24 -</FONT></H2>

<H2 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading2<FONT COLOR="#000077">OPEN LOOK and OpenWindows</FONT></H2>

<P><I>by Kamran Husain</I></P>

<P>IN THIS CHAPTER</P>



<UL>

	<LI>What Is OPEN LOOK?

	<P>

	<LI>olwm and olvwm

	<P>

	<LI>Getting Started with OpenWindows

	<P>

	<LI>Working Within OpenWindows and olwm

	<P>

	<LI>Menus

	<P>

	<LI>Configuring Menus for OpenWindows

	<P>

	<LI>The Virtual Desktop

	<P>

	<LI>Resources in OpenWindows

	<P>

	<LI>Using Text-Editing Features

	<P>

	<LI>Support for Left-Handed Users

	<P>

	<LI>Troubleshooting

	<P>

	<LI>Environment Variables

	<P>

	<LI>Special Help for Sun Workstation Users

	<P>

	<LI>Internet Sites for XView

	<P>

	<LI>Where to Go for More Information

</UL>



<P><BR>

This chapter introduces you to OPEN LOOK on Linux. Ideally, this chapter could be

expanded into a book of its own. That being impossible however, we will cover some

of the basics of OPEN LOOK in this chapter, including



<UL>

	<LI>What OPEN LOOK is

	<P>

	<LI>What to install on Linux

	<P>

	<LI>How to work with a look and feel that's different from Motif

	<P>

	<LI>How to work with the virtual desktop

	<P>

	<LI>How to customize your desktop

	<P>

	<LI>Troubleshooting tips

	<P>

	<LI>Where to get more information about OPEN LOOK

</UL>



<P>If you have not already done so, read Chapter 23, &quot;Using Motif.&quot; This

chapter will build on that chapter, so there won't be duplicate information for you

to weed through. The information you require from the Motif chapter is the discussion

on X Window, working with pointers, and the Motif environment. You will definitely

need to know how to use resources in the <TT>.Xdefaults</TT> files and starting X

Window via shell scripts like <TT>startx</TT>.

<H3 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading3<FONT COLOR="#000077">What Is OPEN LOOK?</FONT></H3>

<P>OPEN LOOK is a specification of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). A GUI determines

the look and feel of a system--the shape of windows, buttons, and scrollbars; how

you resize things; how you edit files; and so on. The OPEN LOOK GUI is specified,

developed, and maintained primarily by Sun Microsystems, Inc. XView is simply the

port on Linux. When I talk about OpenWindows, I will refer to XView for Linux in

this chapter.</P>

<P>OpenWindows is a windowing environment that conforms to the OPEN LOOK Graphical

User Interface Specifications. It's compatible with the X11 window system from MIT

as well as (currently) Sun's NeWS and SunView, so you can intermix programs written

for any of these systems. It comes from Sun and also with UNIX System V Release 4

from certain vendors.



<DL>

	<DT></DT>

</DL>





<DL>

	<DD>

<HR>

<A NAME="Heading4<FONT COLOR="#000077"><B>TIP:</B> </FONT>OpenWindows should

	not be called &quot;Windows&quot; or &quot;OPEN LOOK&quot; or &quot;OpenLook,&quot;

	because these terms are either wrong or apply to something else. OpenWindows is sometimes

	also called <TT>openwin</TT> or <TT>xnews</TT>, after the program used to start it

	and the main executable itself, respectively. 

<HR>



</DL>



<P>Several toolkits exist for programmers to use in developing programs that conform

to the OPEN LOOK specifications:



<UL>

	<LI>OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit (OLIT)

	<P>

	<LI>XView (this is what you have for Linux)

	<P>

	<LI>The NeWS Toolkit (TNT)

	<P>

	<LI>C++ User Interface Toolkit

</UL>



<P>OLIT was AT&amp;T's OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit for the X Window system. OLIT

used a widget set and was therefore easy to learn for people who were already X11/Xt

programmers. You could buy the source from AT&amp;T, although you didn't get the

same version that Sun would ship.</P>

<P>Sun includes the OLIT library in OpenWindows. OLIT is also often included in UNIX

System V Release 4. OLIT was written in C. The last release of OLIT in OpenWindows

3.0 was OLIT 3.0. OLIT support passed to USL (UNIX System Laboratories), who replaced

it with MoOLIT (see the following Tip).



<DL>

	<DT></DT>

</DL>





<DL>

	<DD>

<HR>

<A NAME="Heading5<FONT COLOR="#000077"><B>TIP:</B> </FONT>You need an OLIT

	source in order to develop a large application or anything else that uses subclasses.

	

<HR>



</DL>



<P>XView is Sun's toolkit for X11, written in C. It is similar in programmer interface

to <TT>SunView</TT>. There's even a shell script to help migrate source code from

<TT>SunView</TT> to XView. XView is often said to be the easiest toolkit to learn

if you are not familiar with X Window.</P>

<P>The XView toolkit is included in OpenWindows. The current version of XView from

Sun is 3.2p1.</P>

<P>The NeWS Toolkit (TNT) is an object-oriented programming system based on the PostScript

language and NeWS. TNT implements many of the OPEN LOOK interface components required

to build the user interface of an application. It's currently included in OpenWindows.</P>

<P>The current version of TNT from Sun is 3.1. Release 3 contains some incompatibilities

with TNT 1.0 and TNT 2.0, but Sun is committed to supporting the API, at least until

it stops NeWS support some time later this year and replaces it with Display PostScript.

Wait. You might ask what &quot;is committed to&quot; means in this context; the answer

seems to be that it means absolutely nothing.</P>

<P>Sun currently asserts that it is committed to OLIT, however.</P>

<P>The C++ User Interface Toolkit (UIT) consists of an object-oriented C++ class

library layered on top of XView and a tool to generate code from files written in

a graphical interface language called DevGuide 2 GIL. The UIT also includes features

that simplify event management and the use of PostScript and color. It is said to

be compatible with OpenWindows Versions 2 and 3, and presumably Version 3.0.1, as

the release mentions that it works on Solaris 2.</P>

<P>UIT is not an official Sun-supported product but an ongoing project of various

people within Sun.



<DL>

	<DT></DT>

</DL>





<DL>

	<DD>

<HR>

<A NAME="Heading6<FONT COLOR="#000077"><B>TIP:</B> </FONT>If you cannot decide

	which GUI to use, consider the MoOLIT interface. MoOLIT is a version of OLIT from

	AT&amp;T/USL that lets users choose between a Motif- and an OPEN LOOK-type feel at

	runtime. 

<HR>



</DL>



<H3 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading7<FONT COLOR="#000077">olwm and olvwm</FONT></H3>

<P>There are two window managers for OpenWindows: <TT>olwm</TT> and <TT>olvwm</TT>.

A window manager is responsible for deciding how to lay out windows on the screen,

and for managing the user's interaction with the windows.</P>

<P><TT>olwm</TT> is the standard OPEN LOOK window manager. This window manager is

included with all of the OpenWindows implementations, and you can also get the source

via FTP because Sun donated it to the freeware domain.</P>

<P>The <TT>olvwm</TT> program is a version of <TT>olwm</TT> that manages a virtual

desktop (hence the v in its name). It shows a little map on the screen, with the

currently displayed area represented by a small rectangle. You can move around by

dragging the rectangle or with the arrow keys. This enables you to run several clients

(applications) that occupy the full screen and move the display around from one to

the other. <TT>olvwm</TT> was derived from the OpenWindows 3.0 <TT>olwm</TT> by Scott

Oaks. You need to have XView 3.0 to compile it.</P>

<P>The <TT>olvwm</TT> and <TT>olwm</TT> packages are included on the CD-ROM at the