| OSF/Motif Graphical User Interface Design | |
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A quality OSF/Motif user interface will take advantage of the high performance provided by today's workstations, while obscuring some of the complexity of the underlying operating system. Motif uses the client-server based X Window System developed by the X Consortium, now part of the Open Group. X11, the latest version of the X protocol, uses a display server running on a workstation or PC and one or more client applications running on local or remote systems. Motif is one of several presentation styles created atop X11, and has become the prevalent standard for X-based GUIs. It was also selected as a component of the COSE Common Desktop Environment (CDE). Motif's widget set provides a common look and feel to client applications, but it concentrates on basic objects such as buttons, fields, and lists rather than on the advanced objects which support graphic editing, images display, animation, and real time performance needed by application developers. A number of third party vendors produce custom widget sets intended to be used with Motif. Some of these vendors are listed below. One key to performance in the Motif environment is to use custom widgets to create a unique presentation tailored to the task at hand. DeLise Consulting has developed a variety of widgets, and can tailor these or design new ones for your application. References Motif Newsgroup Motif Online Tutorials Motif FAQ COSE Development Environment newsgroup CDE FAQ X Consortium Home Page Motif Widget Vendors Freedom Software's Motif Page ICS Home Page KL Group Products Bluestone |