Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 22:52:23 -0700 (PDT) From: Jake Hamby <jehamby@lightside.com> To: rbarton <rick@metronet.com> Cc: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>, lenzi@cwbone.bsi.com.br, ports@FreeBSD.org, hackers@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Lesstif (motif compatible) package. Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.92.960410224201.315B-100000@hamby1> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960411001041.286A-100000@localhost>
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On Thu, 11 Apr 1996, rbarton wrote: > > Since we're on the subject of GUIs... any word on Fresco? Is there > anybody working or considering this? > > rick I'm perfectly happy with Motif, using the Doug Young method of wrapping an entire widget tree into a C++ class, rather than the thin-wrapper approach of encapsulating every widget. I think that objects should correspond to real-world components of the program, rather than abstracting every single widget to be a separate class. This is one of the primary objections people have to Microsoft's MFC toolkit for Windows, although it does encapsulate some useful high-level services as well. As for Fresco, I was under the impression that it was an experimental component of X11R6, similar to LBX (the low-bandwidth X extension I found practically unusable). I'm not objecting to the idea of writing a new widget toolkit based on C++, but Motif seems to have the momentum and support to make it the best choice, and although it is C-based, complaining about this is like complaining about why the kernel or the entire libc isn't rewritten in C++! C is efficient, and it is better to concentrate on making your own programs object-oriented, rather than worrying about whether or not every single library you call is. Personally, if I wanted to move away from Motif, but still use X and Unix, I would choose Java (which, in the Unix implementation, is itself based on Motif). Java is OOP, and cross-platform too, and in theory, could be easily integrated with C++ programs in the manner of TCL/Tk (although it isn't common practice, but it is how Java's standard classes are bound to Motif and other standard libraries). ---Jake
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