Announcement of Motif Application Design Book and Source Code
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
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ANNOUNCING THE AVAILABILITY OF NEW BOOK AND SOURCE CODE
DESIGNING X CLIENTS WITH XT/MOTIF
Jerry D. Smith
Iris Computing Laboratories
July 1992, paperback, approx. 350 pages
ISBN 1-55860-255-0
Price: $34.95 (US & Canada)
$38.45 (Shipped to international addresses)
This book focuses on practical design and implementation issues
common to many X software development projects. Its goal is to
introduce the reader to a number of important design issues in the
context of real-world software, such that each reader can consider
these ideas within his or her own approach to program design. The
book has two main themes: The first is that source code should be
separated along user interface (UI) and non-UI lines to gain
advantages in software readability, maintainability, and
reusability. The second theme is that programmers should look for
higher order components in their software development projects.
The book presents the advantages of using abstraction to develop
higher level modules, and it discusses tools and techniques that
enhance the X toolkit's existing programming abstractions.
In keeping with the author's belief that it is important to supply
the reader with real-world examples that illustrate the "big
picture" as well as having on-going utility, the book provides
several reusable objects including a dialog object that supports
modal and nonmodal dialogs. It also presents two useful
applications "xfilter", an X interface to UNIX filters, and
"xrolodex", a Motif rolodex. The source code for these can be
downloaded from popular UNIX network sites.
DESIGNING X CLIENTS WITH XT/MOTIF should be of immediate interest
to X programmers using the X toolkit with the Motif widget set to
construct real applications. Given its emphasis on general design
principles it should also be of interest to X programmers in
general, whether or not they are using Xlib or a toolkit.
CONTENTS
Preface xii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 The X Window System 1
1.2 Programming Abstractions 2
1.3 Economy of Window System Primitives 3
1.4 Mixing X and Operating System Primitives 4
1.5 X Motif and Unix 7
1.6 Event Handling from a Toolkit 8
1.7 Application Design 10
1.8 Separation of UI and Non-UI Components 10
1.9 Practical Xt Design Issues 11
1.10 Objects versus Widgets 12
2 Xt Application Design 15
2.1 PC-style User Interfaces Considered Harmful 15
2.2 Modal versus Nonmodal Dialog Boxes 16
2.3 X's Procedural Event-driven Style 17
2.4 A Manageable Set of Tools 20
2.5 Dynamic Widget Creation 21
2.6 Callback Functions 23
3 "xfilter": Overview of Simple Abstraction 25
3.1 "xfilter" 25
3.2 "xfilter's" User Interface 26
3.3 Common UI Components 28
3.4 "xfilter's" Non-UI Operations 30
3.5 "xfilter": Source Module Breakdown 31
4 Procedural Abstraction 33
4.1 Common Usages for a Menu Function 33
4.2 Application Interface 34
4.3 Menu Implementation 37
5 File-level Abstraction 43
5.1 User Interface 43
5.2 Application Interface 44
5.3 Help System Implementation 47
5.4 Dependencies Among Modules 55
5.5 Alternative Implementations 55
6 "xfilter.c": Linking UI and Non-UI Modules 57
6.1 Overview of the User Interface 57
6.2 Separation of UI and Non-UI Components 60
6.3 Common Data Structures 62
6.4 Implementing the User Interface 64
6.5 User Interface Drudgery 68
6.6 Widget Instance Naming Conventions 76
6.7 Application-neutral Callback Functions 78
6.8 Application-specific Callback Functions 81
6.9 Dispatching Data Manipulations to "xfilter.sel.c" 84
6.10 Providing Help Text for "help.c" 85
7 "xfilter.sel.c": Linking in Non-UI Functionality 87
7.1 Overview of "xfilter's" Data Manipulation Operations 87
7.2 Transferring Data via Window Properties 88
7.3 Application Interface: Linking UI & Non-UI Modules 91
7.4 Retrieving Selections 95
7.5 Dispatching Filter-related Operations 97
7.6 Managing the Clipboard Selection 99
7.7 Applying the UNIX Filter 102
7.8 Xlib's Convenience Functions for Cut-buffer 0 105
7.9 The "Motif" Clipboard 106
7.10 Possible Extensions 106
8 Multiply Instantiable Abstractions 109
8.1 Introduction and Motivation 109
8.2 "CtrlPanel": A Control Panel Object 111
8.3 "CtrlPanel" Resources 117
8.4 Objects versus Widgets 118
8.5 Encapsulation Issues 120
8.6 Motif Style Guide Considerations 121
8.7 "testctrl": A Simple "CtrlPanel" Application 122
9 "xrolodex": Higher Level Abstractions 125
9.1 "xrolodex" 125
9.2 "xrolodex's" User Interface 126
9.3 Beyond the User Interface 128
9.4 "xrolodex": Source Module Breakdown 130
10 "ListShell": A Scrollable List in a Shell 133
10.1 Encapsulation 133
10.2 Overview of "ListShell" 134
10.3 Application Interface 135
10.4 Creating and Initializing a "ListShell" Object 137
10.5 Private Support Functions 145
10.6 Public Support Functions 146
10.7 Managing Secondary Windows 149
10.8 "testlist": A Simple "ListShell" Application 150
11 "Editor": A Search and Replace Editor Object 155
11.1 Overview of "Editor" 155
11.2 Application Interface 159
11.3 Implementing the "Editor" Object 162
11.4 "Editor's" Access Functions 174
11.5 Callback Functions for Clipboard Operations 176
11.6 Callback Functions fur Search and Replace Operations 180
11.7 Event Handlers 182
11.8 "testedit": A Simple "Editor" Application 183
12 "Dialog": A Modal or Nonmodal Dialog Object 185
12.1 Objects versus Convenience Functions in Dialog Design 185
12.2 Overview of "Dialog" 186
12.3 Application Interface 187
12.4 Implementation of the "Dialog" Object 191
12.5 "Dialog" Activation 201
12.6 Modifying and Querying the State of a
"Dialog" Instance 205
12.7 Private Support Functions 207
12.8 Modal Dialogs and Window Manager "Close" Functionality 210
12.9 "testdialog": Testing Three "Dialog" Configurations 211
12.10 Design Issues 218
13 "StreamDB": A Stream Database Object 221
13.1 Overview of "StreamDB" 221
13.2 Programming Interface 222
13.3 "streamdbP.h": The Instance Record 224
13.4 "streamdb.c": Overview of "StreamDB's" Implementation 226
13.5 Overview of "StreamDB's" Access Functions 228
13.6 Miscellaneous "StreamDB" Functions 233
14 "xrolo.c": Coordinating UI and Database Operations 237
14.1 "xrolodex": Overview of User Interface Components 238
14.2 Dialog Box Design 241
14.3 Separation of UI and Non-UI Components 242
14.4 Initialization-related Issues 244
14.5 Application versus Fallback Resources 246
14.6 Creating the User Interface 250
14.7 Designing Callback Functions 264
14.8 Independent Callback Functions 265
14.9 Laissez-faire Callback Functions 268
14.10 Terminating the Application Gracefully 274
14.11 Application Logic in Callback Functions 275
14.12 Miscellaneous Callback Functions 277
14.13 Miscellaneous Support Functions 280
14.14 Reusability 282
15 "xrolo.db.c": The Role of Indirection 285
15.1 "xrolodex's" Database Design Policy 285
15.2 "xrolo.db.h": The Programming Interface 286
15.3 Encapsulating the Rolodex File 287
15.4 Indirection: Maintaining Distance Between Specific
and General Modules 288
15.5 Functions Returning "EntryDB" Values 293
15.6 UI-independent Insertion & Deletion of
Database Entries 294
15.7 "xrolo.db.c's" UI-independent Index-related Services 297
15.8 "xrolo.index.c's" UI-dependent Index-related Services 299
15.9 Separation of UI and Non-UI Components 301
Appendix A Quick Reference for "motif.c" 303
Appendix B Quick Reference for "help.c" 305
Appendix C Quick Reference for "ctrlpanel.c" 307
Appendix D Quick Reference for "listshell.c" 309
Appendix E Quick Reference for "editor.c" 313
Appendix F Quick Reference for "dialog.c" 319
Appendix G Quick Reference for "streamdb.c" 323
References 329
Index 331
_________________________________________________________________
Ordering Information:
The book is available now at better technical bookstores or by
ordering directly from the publisher at:
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
Dept. XT
2929 Campus Drive, Suite 260
San Mateo, CA
94403
USA
Phone: (800)745-READ, (415) 578-9911
Fax: (415) 578-0672
For shipping, please add:
$3.50 for the first book and $2.50 for each additional
for book rate shipping to the U.S. and Canada (2-3
weeks);
$6.50 for the first book and $3.50 for each additional
for surface shipping to all other areas. (4-8 weeks)
Call or fax for quotations on other shipping methods.
Master Card, Visa, American Express and personal checks
drawn on US banks accepted.
California residents please add sales tax appropriate to
your county.
Source Code:
The source code for the book is available for a small
distribution fee on floppy diskettes ($30) or QIC-24 cartridge
tape ($60) payable only be check or money order in US funds,
drawn on a US bank from:
Motif Source Offer
Iris Computing Laboratories
2801 Rodeo Road, Suite B-622
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Please specify diskette format: 5.25" DOS diskettes, 3.5" DOS
diskettes, or SunOS 4.X/5.X tar (1) format. (The DOS
diskettes include Unix format text files).
Alternatively, the source code is available by uucp or ftp
access as a compressed tar file from UUNET Technologies in the
following subdirectory:
uunet!~/published/books (or: ftp.uu.net:/published/books/)
or by anonymous ftp from MIT's public archive for X software
in the following subdirectory:
export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/
The filename for the archive is smith.motif.tar.Z