Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.answers,news.answers Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!uhog.mit.edu!news.mathworks.com!europa.chnt.gtegsc.com!cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!oitnews.harvard.edu!newsfeed.rice.edu!nb.rockwell.com!wade From: wade@nb.rockwell.com (Wade Guthrie) Subject: (FAQ) Portable GUI Development Kits, part 1/2 Message-ID: Followup-To: comp.windows.misc Summary: This posting discusses many of the various platform-independent Graphical User Interface (GUI) development software libraries/ packages. Supersedes: Reply-To: wade@nb.rockwell.com Organization: Rockwell International Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 15:34:22 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu Expires: Thu, 27 Jul 1995 15:34:17 GMT Lines: 730 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.windows.misc:13207 comp.answers:12551 news.answers:46464 Archive-name: portable-GUI-software/part1 Last-modified: Thu May 18 19:45:54 PDT 1995 Version: 1.16 ----------------------------------- Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995 Wade Guthrie. Permission is granted to copy and redistribute this document so long as it is unmodified (including the part that explains where to get the FAQ free-of-charge) and the copyright remains in-tact. I'd appreciate it if you told me about any redistribution, but that's not strictly necessary. ----------------------------------- 0. CONTENTS -- part 1 -- I. WHAT'S NEW IN THIS ISSUE II. INTRODUCTION III. GLOSSARY IV. USER-INTERFACE APPROACHES V. FEATURES AND SUPPORTED PLATFORMS -- part 2 -- VI. VENDOR REPORTS VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I. WHAT'S NEW IN THIS ISSUE. . . Not a whole lot. . . II. INTRODUCTION This posting is intended to shell-out as much information as I can find concerning platform-independent Graphical User Interface (PIGUI) development kits (actually, it's platform-independent APIs targeting various platform-DEPENDENT GUIs, but let's not get too picky). This list is being posted because I've seen a whole mess of requests for GUI portability information and, besides, I need this information as well. This document is maintained and periodically updated as a service to the net by Wade Guthrie (wadeg@realm.net, or wade@nb.rockwell.com). Any corrections, updates, or other pertinent information are welcomed at that address. If you are a vendor of a PIGUI package (whether it's represented here or not), I encourage you to amend, annotate, and append to this document (and then, of course, send the revisions back to the author). IIa. Where to get this document. You can get the latest version of this FAQ (and, in fact, all the FAQs that appear in .answers) *FREE-OF-CHARGE* by anonymous FTP from 'rtfm.mit.edu'. This FAQ can be found in the following directory: /pub/usenet/comp.windows.misc. There are several mail servers that will do the FTP for you if you do not have access to FTP directly. IIb. What's a PIGUI? A PIGUI toolkit is a software library that a programmer uses to produce GUI code for multiple computer systems. The toolkit presents functions and/or objects (along with a programming approach) which is independent of which GUI the programmer is targeting. For the purposes of *this* document, a PIGUI must support the native look-and-feel for GUIs under at least two different operating systems (so just supporting OpenLook and Motif on two Unix boxes doesn't count). The toolkit does not necessarily provide any additional portability features. Now, let's consider Petula Sniggly, a programmer who decides she wants to build the ultimate computer program. This thing is going to be so cool that everyone anywhere near a CPU will want to use it, so Petula targets her program for every type of computer on the planet. She considers getting herself a PIGUI toolkit to handle the GUI portion of her code. With a PIGUI toolkit, when she wants to put a menu on the screen, she calls the toolkit's "PIGUI_menu" function. When she compiles her code with the "Macintosh" flag set, the PIGUI library puts a Mac menu on the screen in response to the PIGUI_menu call. When she compiles her code with the "Motif" flag set, the call causes the library to put-up a Motif-style menu. All this happens (theoretically) without Petula having to change her source code. If she is careful to make her non-GUI code portable, she would have a single program (with a single source) that works on multiple platforms. There is no free lunch, so our heroine Petula has a few things to consider before deciding whether to use a PIGUI. First, most (and maybe 'all' depending on whom you believe) of the PIGUIs will slow the execution of your code. You are also limited to the feature set provided by the PIGUI unless you want to code around the toolkit (but, then again, why would you buy the PIGUI in the first place if you're going to code around it?). Bugs in any toolset (PIGUI or otherwise) filter down to your production code. Fewer people know how to code any specific PIGUI than do a platform-specific GUI (e.g., MS-Windows), so wizardly help will be limited. The PIGUI only deals with the GUI aspects of your program -- you're on your own for other portability issues. Finally, if the vendor goes out of business you may be out-of-luck for support of future OS enhancements (source code can ease, but not eliminate, the pain of a vendor closing its doors). IIc. A word about language choice. Many C programmers will look at the purchase of a PIGUI library as a great opportunity to migrate to C++. If the library takes full advantage of C++, the programmer will have to use C++ methodologies (not just a C++ compiler with C syntax) to use it. When one ports a C program to such a library, one should expect to invest a *significant* amount of effort learning about (and modifying his code to take advantage of) classes, inheritance, and constructors in order to complete the port. Of course, if one wants his C code to become C++ code, this is a necessary exercise anyway. IId. What else is in this Document? After the introductory stuff, you'll find some more detailed information about PIGUIs in general followed by tables and prose that describe specific PIGUI toolkits. The limits placed on which products are discussed in this posting are pretty-much provided in the title. The products listed here must be platform-independent and support at least two different OSs. The product must be shipping to the general public (i.e., no beta-only or pre-beta PIGUIs). Moreover, these packages focus on GUI portability, though some provide a larger breadth of portability features (and, I've tried to list those, where applicable). No limits (at either the high or the low end) have been placed on price, even though the prices in the field vary by more than an order of magnitude (and, now, there are some free PIGUI kits). Note that in addition to one of the products listed here, you'll need (natch) one of the supported host machines, a compiler or interpreter of the appropriate type, and, for layered GUI packages (q.v.), the basic GUI builder for that platform. IIe. More Legal Barf. At this point, I find it necessary (even though this is covered by my .sig) to say that this FAQ is my personal work and that this FAQ does *IN NO WAY* indicate, reveal, imply, infer, allude to, display, suggest, symbolize, expose, demonstrate, hint at, or in any way have anything to do with the thoughts, policies, suggestions, reflections, decisions, theories, sentiments, ponderings, rules, dreams, or beliefs of my employer. I use a lot of names that are trademarks in this FAQ. At no time should the use of a trademarked name be construed as contesting the trademark. Those trademarks belong to their respective trademark holders. If lots of stuff in this posting looks familiar to you, you're not hallucinating (well, maybe you are, but not regarding this). Much of the format (and some of the words) of this FAQ have been lifted (with permission -- thanks Eric) from Eric Raymond's PC-UNIX FAQ. III. GLOSSARY Here are some words that you'll find in this FAQ along with working definitions for them. API Applications Programming Interface. This is what the programmer sees when he's using a software development kit. Normally, this would be a set of function calls and/or objects. CDE The GUI part of COSE (q.v.) is CDE, the Common Desktop Environment which includes hypertext help, IPC (q.v.), printer support, and a bunch of other stuff. The look-and- feel is Motif-like, but there's a lot more than that to CDE. It looks like CDE certification will be withheld from most (if not all) PIGUIs since CDE includes its own API -- you have to comply with the API to be certified. COSE Common Open Software Environment. COSE is the industry-agreed- upon graphical environment that will augment (significantly) and replace Motif and OpenLook. CUI Character User Interface. This is like a graphical user interface, but it's implemented only with characters (e.g., ASCII). Many Platform-Independent CUIs are developed using the public-domain curses package. DDE Dynamic Data Exchange. This is a method of inter-process communication under Microsoft Windows. DDEML Microsoft Windows' Dynamic Data Exchange Management Library. DLL Dynamically Linked Libraries. These are, essentially, shared libraries under Microsoft Windows or OS/2. FAQ Frequently Asked Questions. A list. . .like THIS one! font A specific set of shapes for a character set. Old English is one example of a font (it's more complicated than that, but I'm not going into it here). GDI Microsoft Windows' Graphical Drawing Interface. GUI Graphical User Interface. If you don't know what this is already, you have quite a bit of homework before this FAQ will mean anything to you. IPC Inter-process Communication. It's a generic term for the way separate processes (or tasks) under an operating system talk to each other. MDI Microsoft Windows' Multiple Document Interface. An MDI parent window is intended to be the main window of an application and MDI child windows represent separate documents or sessions (or whatever) under that application. Motif This is one of the choices of look-and-feel under the X Window system. In order to have one's software certified as Motif compliant, one must pay a fee to the Open Software Foundation (OSF). OpenLook This is one of the choices of look-and-feel under the X Window system. It was originally championed by Sun Microsystems before they agreed to support COSE (q.v.). PCL Hewlett Packard's Printer Control Language. It's a language for getting HP printers to display what you want. Several versions exist, including PCL4 and PCL5. PIGUI Platform-Independent Graphical User Interface. Actually, it refers to a platform-independent API (q.v.). PM OS/2's Presentation Manager. This is the GUI under OS/2. PostScript This is a printer language owned by Adobe Systems. It's an interpreted language that is used by a wide variety of printers. This is yet another technology created by Xerox Parc. SDK Software Development Kit. It's software to help a programmer build other software. Unicode This is an international (16-bits per character) character set in which all the characters from the various supported international languages co-exist at once. Among the supported character sets is the Latin alphabet (as used for English and other languages), Hebrew, and kanji. WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get (pronounced Wizzy-Wig). It's a way of allowing the user of a package to see the package's output (in its ultimate format) while the user is developing using that package. Most WYSIWYG software is really WYSISWYG (pronounced Wizzy-Swig) -- What you see is sort-of what you get. Xlib This is the library of X-Windows functions distributed by MIT with the X Window system (hence, it's free -- just like X Windows). One can generate software that is compliant to the OpenLook or Motif look-and-feel (or any other, for that matter) using Xlib. YMMV Your Mileage May Vary. IV. USER-INTERFACE APPROACHES Most, if not all, of the products in this FAQ take one of three approaches to providing platform independence. The two most common approaches are the "layered" and the "emulated" user interface but an up-and-coming approach is "API emulated" interface. Products using a layered interface access native, third party, GUI-building toolkits to provide the look-and-feel compliance for each particular GUI. Layered user interfaces have the advantage that, since they depend on other products which concentrate on a single GUI, they have to provide less software (and, hence, are usually less expensive) than emulated interfaces. Layered interfaces are also more likely to get the native look-and-feel correct on all platforms. Most of the PIGUI products in this FAQ fit in this category. In an emulated user interface, the PIGUI's resultant code produces low-level calls and all the look-and-feel compliance is handled by the PIGUI software itself (e.g., for OpenWindows support, the software would *NOT* produce an XView program that must be compiled with the XView toolkit; the software would produce code that interfaces directly with X intrinsics). To provide an emulated user interface, a vendor has to develop a lot of extra code for look-and-feel support. Emulated user interfaces have the advantage that someone on a Motif workstation, for example, can see how the Macintosh-style UI will look (since the look-and-feel is part of the product). Emulated interfaces have the opportunity to provide a faster GUI than does a layered interface; in addition, it does not require you to purchase (or learn how to use) other kits to build GUI software. A third approach to platform independence is emulating one of the supported target's APIs (usually, the Microsoft Windows API) to target other GUIs. With one of these products, one would program using the emulated API and the code would be (to the extent to which that the product provides portability) portable to other GUIs. V. FEATURES AND SUPPORTED PLATFORMS The products in this FAQ are pretty similar in their basic functionality; they each provide function calls or classes that allow the user to build windows, buttons (regular as well as radio buttons and check boxes), menus, menu bars, and the like. Areas of contention seem to be things such as: - support for the platforms you need, - the choice of implementation language, - availability and price of source code, - printer support, - support for international character sets, - capability to support draw-package-like features, - bitmap (and icon) support, - the approach to platform independence (see below), - nifty high-level widgets, and - price (complete price including royalties and distribution charges), Of course, each user will have his own requirements; YMMV. Now, on to the comparisons. To interpret the tables below, bear in mind the following things: - If information for a cell is unknown, a period ('.') is placed there. It is the ultimate goal of the author to eliminate all of these. - If a PIGUI package does not support a feature or platform in the table, the cell is marked with a hyphen ('-'). - If a feature or platform is not currently supported, but that support is planned, the cell is marked with ('soon'). Support in the form of beta versions (as well as longer- lead versions) fit in this category. - If a price is known for a product, that price is inserted in the appropriate cell of the table. If that price is not known (but the feature is supported), the cell is marked with 'yes' -- it is hoped that all 'yes' entries will be replaced with prices "Real Soon Now". Note that prices in this FAQ are the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price). The street price for some of these products can be *significantly* less. - Tables are annotated, where appropriate, with letters (in parenthesis where it doesn't take-up too much room). The appropriate notes are found below the table. Also note that as information changes, some of the notes will disappear. The note letters will not necessarily be in sequence -- get used to it. Another note: given that Sun Microsystems has announced its abandonment of OpenLook in favor of COSE, I'm not sure I'd hold my breath for the OpenLook betas in the tables below. It may just not be worth it for some of the vendors to support a product that has limited (at best) application (in fact, at least one vendor has abandoned an existing OpenLook product). The following products are listed in this FAQ. Abbreviations are given for product names which are too long to go into the tables. Views C++/Views, Liant CLIM Common Lisp Interface Manager, several vendors DCLAP Don's Class Application library, Don Gilbert Galaxy Galaxy, Visix Guild Guild, Guild ILOG ILOG VIEWS, ILOG JAM JAM, JYACC. libWxm libWxm, Visual Solutions MAINWin MAINWin/Cross-Development Kit, MAINSoft Corporation Menuet Menuet/CPP, Autumn Hill Software, Inc. MEWEL MEWEL UIL, Magma Systems MS-MFC Microsoft Foundation Classes as provided by *Microsoft* Visual C++ and related products. This does NOT include non-Microsoft vendors who also support MFC (they are listed separately). NuTCRAC NuTCRACKER, DataFocus, Inc. ObViews ObjectViews C++, Quest Windows Corporation OI Open Interface, Neuron Data OpenUI OpenUI, Open Software Associates OWL Object Windows Library, Borland PSM Presentation Services Manager, Lancorp Pty Ltd. ScrMach Screen Machine, Objective Interface Systems, Inc. StarVie StarView, StarDivision SUIT Simple User Interface Toolkit, University of Virginia VisWork VisualWorks, Openware Wind/U Wind/U, Bristol Technology WMMOTIF WM_MOTIF User Interface Library, Software UNO, Ltd. WNDX WNDX GUI Toolkit, WNDX wxWind wxWindows, Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute XVT XVT Portability Toolkit, XVT Software Inc. YACL Yet Another Class Library, M. A. Sridhar. zApp zApp, Inmark Zinc Zinc, Zinc In addition, I'd like to mention the following products that are not mentioned in this document (well, not except for here): Appware This product has been *de-emphasized* (which is commonly believed to mean 'dropped') by Novel. Aspect Looks like 'Open' has gone out of business. CommonV Word has it that Computer Associates has stopped supporting Glockenspiel CommonView. STDWIN This product is no longer supported, but it's free from ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/stdwin/. Vibrant I'm told this is no longer supported, but contact info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov for more information. Table 1: PLATFORM VS. PRICE (US$ except where noted) Open- Next- Vendor ASCII DOS Win(s) Win/NT OS/2 Motif Look Mac PenOS Step ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Views - soon 1499f 1499f 1499 2499 - 1499 . . CLIM . . . . . yes yes soon . . DCLAP . . (k) . . (k) . (k) . . Galaxy - - 9600m 9600m 9600m 9600m 9600m 9600m - . Guild - - 895 895 895 soon - 895 - . ILOG - - 5000 7500 soon 7500 - - - - JAM yes yes yes . . yes yes . . . libWxm - - (h) (h) - yes - - - . MAINWin - - (h) (h) - 5000n - - - . Menuet - 499 599 - 599 999 - . yes . MEWEL 1595 395u (h) (h) 795 yes - - - . MS-MFC - - yes 399 - - - 1999 - - NuTCRAC - - - 2995 - (h) - - - - ObViews - - yes yes . yes - yes - . OI yes yes 5800 6850 6850 9850 9850 4800 . . OpenUI yes - 3500q soon 4900 7900g - 3500q (w) . OWL - yes yes . yes - - - - - PSM . . yes . . yes . soon . . ScrMach 495 495 1995 soon - (p) - - - - StarVie - - 499 yes 495 soon soon yes . . SUIT . (k) (k) . . (k) (k) (k) . . VisWork . . 2995 . 2995 4995 4995 2995 . . Wind/U - - (h) (h) - 9950 - - - . WMMOTIF 1500 - (h) (h) - 1995 - - - . WNDX . 995 695 995 soon 1495 1495 995 . . wxWind soon - free free - free free - - . XVT call 1950 1950 6300ab 1950 6300a (c) 1950 . . YACL - - free - soon free - - - - zApp - 495z 495 495 695 1995 - soon - . Zinc(e) 1499e 299e 299(f) 299(f) 299e 1499 - 299ej 299 soon ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vendor ASCII DOS Win(s) Win/NT OS/2 Motif Open- Mac PenOS Next- Look Step (a) This is the price for platforms other than x86-based computers. For x86-based machines (under DOS/UNIX/Xenix -- where applicable), the price is $1950. (b) For non-x86 platforms, check for availability -- Alpha and MIPS supported. (c) Support for this product has been discontinued. (d) Novell're currently determining pricing information -- they use the term 'negotiated'. (e) Zinc requires a single-time purchase of the Zinc GUI engine. This is $499. After this price, the individual GUIs to be supported are added-on. (f) Win16, Win32s, and Win32 are packaged together. (g) for a PC-based Unix, we're talking $5850. (h) This product uses the API that's native on this platform (e.g., support for Win32 under MS-Windows NT); so, in that sense, it supports this platform. (j) Pre-release. (k) This product is free for non-commercial use. If you make a profit, you'll have to check with the vendor for pricing and availability. (m) Each version of Galaxy is able to use the Motif, OpenLook, OS/2 CUA, or Windows look-and-feels. On the Macintosh version the Mac look-and-feel is available along with the others listed above. Also: This is the C price. You're looking at $12.2K for C++. (n) The cost drops for subsequent copies. Number 2 is $3500 and number 3 is $2000. (p) The pricing here is a little complicated. It was explained to me as follows. "We have both systems based pricing and floating license pricing. The system based pricing runs from $3K (small Sun or SCO) to $24K (big VAX or Sun 2000). The Unix Motif floating license pricing is $6K for the first license and $3K for each additional license." (q) This price may be out-of-date. (s) That's Microsoft Windows (TM). (u) Price does not include source code (the other MEWEL products do). (w) Does work on PenOS systems, but does not *yet* have Pen extensions. (x) That's OpenLook. (y) That's NextStep. (z) DOS Text is sold separately from DOS graphics. What we're looking at is two groups of products. The lower-priced group is usually C++, is a more recent introduction to the market, is almost always a layered GUI, and concentrates on PC-based operating systems. Products from the higher-priced group usually offer a more stable platform with both greater breadth and depth than does the previous group. In either case, the cost premium for UNIX support is usually a factor of 3 -- that is, the GUI package for a UNIX platform for any PIGUI product is usually 3 times as expensive as the version for DOS/MS-Windows. Other "personal" operating systems (e.g. OS/2 and the Mac) vary as to whether they follow the UNIX pricing or the PC pricing. These are merely observations, your mileage may vary. Table 2: FEATURES, OTHER NIFTIES, AND HIDDEN COSTS Vendor Type(p) Eval(a) Source Royalty Distrib(z) Language Builder(g) ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Views layered (j) free no . C++ yes CLIM . (u) . . . Cmn Lisp (u) DCLAP . free free . . C/C++ . Galaxy emulate (d) (e) no . C/C++(c) yes Guild . . (f) no . C yes ILOG emulate 30 no no - C++ yes JAM layered . yes no . C yes libWxm API emu . . . . . . MAINWin API emu 30 no (w) . C/C++ $199 Menuet . . . . . . . MEWEL API emu . (r) no no C(s) (t) MS-MFC . . . . . C++ yes NuTCRAC API emu . yes . yes C/C++ . ObViews layered . . no . C++ . OI emulate (x) . no $8,000 C/C++(k) yes OpenUI layered (q) (e,b) no . C(h) yes OWL . . . . . C++ yes PSM . . . yes . . no ScrMach layered 30 (e) no . Ada free StarVie layered 30 yes no . C++ yes SUIT . free free . . C . VisWork emulate 30(j) 100000 yes . SmalTalk yes Wind/U API emu 30(j) (f) no $19,500/yr C/C++ (t) WMMOTIF API emu (j) 7500 no no C/C++ (t) WNDX layered 30 (f) no . C yes wxWind . free free no . C++ (n) XVT layered (j) yes no . C/C++ yes YACL . free free no no C++ . zApp layered 60(j) free no . C++ $499 Zinc layered 60 free no no C++ yes ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vendor Type(p) Eval(a) Source Royalty Distrib(z) Language Builder(g) (a) This is the number of days that the product can be evaluated. Inside this time, the software can be returned for full money back (minus, possibly, a cost for the evaluation -- check with the vendor). (b) Open Software Associates is willing to make a deal for source on a case-by-case basis. (c) Galaxy's C++ product is not available on the Macintosh. (d) Give them a P.O. They'll give it back if you don't like the product. They require the evaluator to take a 1 week, $2500 course. (e) Source code is held in an escrow account. You can't get to it unless the company goes belly-up. This helps you protect your investment -- if the company goes belly-up, you can do the software maintenance yourself. (f) You can buy it, or you can get an escrow account. (g) This is a WYSIWYG GUI Builder. (h) Pascal, Cobol, and Ada are supported, too, but there wasn't room. (j) There is a cost for evaluation. (k) They've taken a 'wrappers' approach -- you can't subclass from their C++ classes. (n) Uses SunOS's DevGuide. (p) Type means 'emulated', 'layered', or 'API emulated'. This describes how the product approaches support for various GUIs. (q) They charge (about $500) for a 90 day (money applicable to purchase) evaluation period. Included is a 1-day training course and phone and fax support. (r) ASCII, OS/2, and Unix versions come with source for free. The DOS version is an additional $400 with source. The Motif version can also be purchased. (s) You can program in the MS Windows API or use MFC, OWL, or C++/Views. (t) Any C/C++-based (depending on the nature of the product) MS Windows Application Builder will work. (u) Different LISP vendors support CLIM -- each provides a different set of options and pricing structures. (w) MAINWin kind-of charges royalties. Every machine on which one or more applications developed with MAINWin is to be run needs a license for the shared libraries. The cost runs between $195 (quantity 1) and $156 (quantity 100) per machine. (x) These guys have a 'flexible evaluation structure'. (z) This represents a cost per platform or application (check with the vendor) distributed. It's not technically a royalty since the cost is not per unit of software shipped, but it is a cost that one has to consider. These costs are usually limited to commercial applications. The following table makes the most sense for operating systems that work on various types of hardware (e.g., UNIX, Windows NT) rather than for OSs dedicated to a certain type of hardware (e.g., DOS, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh). A `y' indicates that support has been verified by a user report. A `c' indicates that the hardware/OS is claimed to work in vendor literature. An `e' indicates that this is the API emulated by the software. A `b' indicates that the hardware/OS is in beta. A `p' indicates that the hardware/OS is planned, but not yet in beta. An `x' indicates that support for the hardware/OS is being PHASED OUT. An `i' indicates that I've heard that the vendor has ported their libraries, but they are only available in-house. A `.' indicates that whether this combination works is unknown. A `-' indicates that the vendor doesn't support that hardware. A `*' points you at footnote info. Table 3: HARDWARE VENDORs SUPPORTED M N O S S V W G L M A M u O p O c t i M W w V D a G i e I M S T b e p r a s M i x i C C l u I b n N E - C V n e M r S W W O n W Y z Z e L L a i L J w u W W M R i I n O P a V U o N T d i X A A i w I A x l O A x e i E F A e n U W S c i I r D I / n V C p n s M P y d G M m t n L C C w t I L M h e T k X F U d T L p c Systems ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - . . - . - . . . - c . - - . - . . - - c . c - . - . - c y DOS Graphics p . . - . - . . . - c . - - . - . . c - . . - - . - . - c c DOS Text . . . . . - . . . - . . - . . - . . c . . . c - . . c - y c 16-bit DOS Extend . . . . . - . . c - c . - . . - . . c . . . c - . . - - - c 32-bit DOS Extend - . . - . - . . . - c . . - . y . . c - . . . c . p y - . c ASCII Text y . c - c c . e c e e c - c c y c c c c c c c e e c c c c y MS-Win 3.x Win16 . . . y . c . . . . . c - . . . c . . . . . c - . . c . . c MS-Win Win32s c . c y c - . . . - - c - c c y . b - c c c c - . - c - b b Macintosh . . . . . - . . . - . b - . . p . . - b . . p - . . c - . p Macintosh PowerPC c . . y c p . . c - c . - - c y c c - c . c p - . - c - c c OS/2 c . . y c c . . . c p c c c c c c . p c . . c - . b c . c c x86 / WinNT Win32 p . . b . b . . . c p . . . c - . . p c . . . - . - c . . p DEC AXP / Win NT - . . b . - . . . c p c . . . - . . p p . . . - . - - . . . MIPS / Win NT - . . y . c . . . c - - - . c - - . - c c c c - . c x - - - SunOS / OpenLook c . c y b c . c . c c - - . . c - . c c c . c c y c c - y c SunOS / Motif c . . c . c . . . c c - - . . . - . . . . . c c . . c - c . Solaris 2.x/Motif - . . . . - . . . p - - e . . c - . c - . . . c . c x . . . ISC c . . c . c . . . p - - e . . c - . . . . . . p c . c . - . AXP Digital Unix . . . c . - . . . - - - e . . c - . . . . . . - . . c . - . DEC AXP OpenVMS - . . y . - . . . - - - e . c c - . c p . c . - . c x c - . DEC Ultrix p . . y . - . . . - - - e . c c - . c p . . . - p . c . - p DEC Vax VMS . . . . . - . . . . - - e . . . - . . . . . . - . . c . . . AT&T System 3000 c . . . . - . . . - c - e . c c - c c p . . . c . c c . y c SCO Unix/Xenix - . . c . - . c . - - - e . c - - . - p . . . - p c c . . . MIPS c . . y . c . c . c c - e . c c - . c p c c c c c c c . y c HP 9000/HPUX c . . y . c . c . c c - e . c c - . c c c c . c y c c . y c IBM RS-6000/AIX c . . c . c . c . c - - . . c - - . c p c . c - y y c . c c Silicon Graphics - . . . . - . . . - - - . . . c - c - - . . . - . . - . . . Pyramid . . . i . . . . . . . - e . i . - . . . . . . p . c . c . . Linux Table 4: SUPPORT FEATURES With 800 FTP Read Support Vendor sale number? BBS? Compuserv? server? USENET? Other contracts ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Views 60d no yes no no yes . $399-$599/yr CLIM (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) DCLAP none no no no yes yes . - Galaxy none yes no no yes yes (k) $1,995/yr Guild 90d ? . . . . . $100/month ILOG none yes no yes yes yes (n) 15%/yr JAM . ? . . . . . . libWxm . ? . . . . . . MAINWin 1 year yes . . yes . (h) $1000/yr(e) Menuet . ? . . . . . . MEWEL yes no yes yes yes yes . $250/yr MS-MFC . no . . . no . . NuTCRAC 30 ? no no no yes . $500-$2000/yr ObViews . ? . . . . . yes OI . ? yes . . yes . $1200-$2400/yr OpenUI 90d yes soon no yes yes (h) 12%-30%/yr OWL . no . yes yes no . yes PSM . ? . . . . . - ScrMach 1 year yes no no no yes (hk) 20%/yr StarVie . yes yes yes no yes . - SUIT . no . . yes . (d) - VisWork (f) yes yes yes (g) . . $675/yr Wind/U . no no no yes yes (mn) 12%-20%/yr WMMOTIF 30d yes yes yes yes yes . 20/yr WNDX 30d no yes soon no no (hn) (p) wxWind . no no no . yes . - XVT 6 mon. no yes yes yes (r) (b) (call) YACL - no no no . yes . - zApp forever no yes yes yes yes . - Zinc forever no yes yes yes yes . $499/yr(j) ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vendor With 800 BBS? Compuserv? FTP Read Other Support sale number? server? USENET? contracts (b) There's a mailing list. (c) CLIM is a multi-vendor product. See the individual vendor for information. (d) There is a SUIT mailing list. Send email to 'suit-users-request@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU' for mor information. (e) That's for one person. The second person is $700, and subsequent users are at $500. (f) Installation and temporary evaluation help plus one free general support question. (g) Gopher service. (h) Support (including distribution) by e-mail. (j) This is for their higher-end support. Simple support still comes for free. (k) They support an email mailing list. (m) WWW support. (n) Newsletter. (p) Cost of technical support per year == purchase price of product. (r) Informally. -- Wade Guthrie | "You can't let him in here, he'd see the wade@nb.rockwell.com | Big Board!" I don't speak for Rockwell. | Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.answers,news.answers Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!uhog.mit.edu!news.mathworks.com!europa.chnt.gtegsc.com!cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!oitnews.harvard.edu!newsfeed.rice.edu!nb.rockwell.com!wade From: wade@nb.rockwell.com (Wade Guthrie) Subject: (FAQ) Portable GUI Development Kits, part 2/2 Message-ID: Followup-To: comp.windows.misc Summary: This posting discusses many of the various platform-independent Graphical User Interface (GUI) development software libraries/ packages. Supersedes: Reply-To: wade@nb.rockwell.com Organization: Rockwell International References: Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 15:34:24 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu Expires: Thu, 27 Jul 1995 15:34:17 GMT Lines: 1529 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.windows.misc:13209 comp.answers:12553 news.answers:46466 Archive-name: portable-GUI-software/part2 Last-modified: Thu May 18 19:45:54 PDT 1995 Version: 1.16 ----------------------------------- Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995 Wade Guthrie. Permission is granted to copy and redistribute this document so long as it is unmodified (including the part that explains where to get the FAQ free-of-charge) and the copyright remains in-tact. I'd appreciate it if you told me about any redistribution, but that's not strictly necessary. ----------------------------------- 0. CONTENTS -- part 1 -- I. WHAT'S NEW IN THIS ISSUE II. INTRODUCTION III. ABOUT THE IEEE PIGUI STANDARD IV. USER-INTERFACE APPROACHES V. FEATURES AND SUPPORTED PLATFORMS -- part 2 -- VI. VENDOR REPORTS VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- In case you only got part II ------ You can get the latest version (both parts) of this FAQ *FREE-OF-CHARGE* by anonymous FTP from 'rtfm.mit.edu' in the /pub/usenet/comp.windows.misc directory. -------------------------------------- VI. VENDOR REPORTS Vendor reports start here. Each one is led by a form feed. NAME: C++/Views, V3.0.1 VENDOR: Liant Software Corp. 959 Concord St., Framingham, MA 01701 USA (800) 237-1873 (sales) (800) 833-3678 (inquiries) (508) 875-2246 (support) Email: support@lpi.liant.com SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: This is a C++ library based on the smalltalk model (all classes come from one superclass, and they have a smalltalk-like class browser). Version 3 now has a WYSIWYG GUI builder (that includes a class browser and portable resource editor) called C++/Views Constructor. Additional features include printer, graphics, event, string, and various container classes as well as some higher-level classes (e.g., VTableView and VToolBar). Version 3 also handles geometry management so you can place objects based on relative coordinates and persistent object storage. C++/Views Constructor is the focal point of the C++/Views development process. One uses the browser to navigate through his application to, among other things, find appropriate GUI base classes. From there, one can derive new class descriptions which the browser uses to generate the necessary C++ source code. The user doesn't see individual events; they handled by virtual callback functions in the base classes. SUPPORT: 60 days free. After that, $399/year for Microsoft Windows / Windows NT, Mac, and OS/2; $599/yr for Motif. All support contracts now include upgrades. COMMENTS: Liant believes that their product is different from the rest because C++/Views provides a higher level of abstraction from most of the rest of the PIGUIs and, therefore, is easier to come up-to-speed. Liant seems to be listening to what their customers have to say. Many of the previous negative comments in this FAQ have been addressed by Liant in their latest release (and this has been substantiated by user comments). The people at Liant have also been extremely helpful with putting together this FAQ. Liant was founded in 1980. FUTURE PLANS: Liant has a Mac version, but the price is as yet undetermined. They have DOS and Unix character versions which, I'm told, will be in beta very soon. They're also working on portable on-line help, multi-byte character support, C++ code generation from their builder (as opposed to generation of a resource file), and compatibility with ODBMSs. WHAT THE USERS SAY: They use a smalltalk model -- if you like smalltalk, great; if not, you may have some trouble. They have a browser/editor -- it's simple to add a new message but it's reportedly kind-of clumsy to use. You may want to use a different environment like Borland's IDE under Microsoft Windows. US technical support has improved (and is continuing to improve), from what I've heard, but overseas users must go through their local technical support personnel (some of which are less than stellar). NAME: Common Lisp Interface Manager, V2.0 VENDOR: Well, this gets kind-of complicated. It was started by a company called 'Internation Lisp Associates', or ILA, but was adopted by several Lisp vendors. The five active CLIM parters are: Symbolics (these guys are the primary coordinators of the project) Concord, MA Lucid, Menlo Park, CA Email: sales@lucid.com Franz, Berkeley, CA Harlelquin Illudium Email: york@lucid.com SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: CLIM is a de-facto extension to the Common Lisp language. It supports standard shape-drawing primitives with a portable color model. Full 2D affine transforms are supported. In addition, a platform-independent typeface specification mechanism is included. CLIM operates through a back-end for each underlying GUI. Back-end efforts exist for Motif (which is shipping), OpenLook, and the Macintosh. I don't think that there is a Windows back-end yet. CLIM can also run in a CLIM-look-and-feel mode as a fallback. For additional information, see the comp.lang.lisp FAQ, part 7. NAME: Don's Class Application (DCLAP) library. VENDOR: Don Gilbert, Indiana University at Bloomington, Biocomputing Dept. Email: dclap@bio.indiana.edu SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: This is a (free-of-charge) barebones C++ application framework with no detailed documentation. COMMENTS: You can get it via anonymous ftp from ftp.bio.indiana.edu. It's in the /util/dclap directory. According to the author, it "has several important flaws". But, on the other hand, it's free for non-commercial uses. It is built on the cross-platform toolkit from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) available for anonymous ftp from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov as /toolbox/ncbi_tools/ncbi.tar.Z. NAME: Galaxy, V2.02 VENDOR: Visix 11440 Commerce Park Drive Reston, Virginia 22091 (800) 832-8668 (inquiries) (703) 758-2711 (voice) Email: galaxy@visix.com SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: There are C++ and C versions of this library. The package includes a WYSIWYG GUI builder. They ship the tools with static and dynamically loaded libraries, debugging libraries, as well as single- and multi-look-and-feel versions. The tools are, reportedly, pretty full-featured. User-interface items have extensive abstraction (for example, they have a confirmation-type dialog that resolves to a push-pin and 'apply' button under OpenLook, but 'ok', 'apply', 'cancel' buttons under motif). Also, errors are handled with an abstract exception handling framework. They support geometry management and internationalization of typefaces (at least Japanese), money, and data formatting. Finally, they have a portable help engine. Some extra-cool features include memory leak detection and C-language objects for text (multi-styled, multi-font text with embedded graphics), list (spreadsheet-like for handling up to 2^31 x 2^31 cells with customizable displays), and graphics processing. They include lots of high-level objects for use by developers; these objects include a font chooser, an icon editor, a directory browser (for file selection), and a color chooser. In addition to a GUI portability platform, Galaxy also includes inter-process communication (IPC), extensive filesystem, and sound support portability across platforms. SUPPORT: You get no support when you buy the product. If you buy the support, it includes product updates and phone access to their developers. According to one of Galaxy's developers "not buying support is really a false economy". COMMENTS: These guys have implemented a full superset approach to their API. Often, their objects are more capable than the native-mode object would if you had not used their code. Like Neuron data, they're an emulated API (they don't layer on-top of other tools); they compile, for example, down to Xlib under Motif or OpenLook. This software won Unix Review's Outstanding Product Award (1993) for Software Development Front-Ends. They claim support for MS-Windows v3.1, but support is only for (the still buggy) Win32s and not Win16 (well, actually, if you use Watcom, they have their own version of Win32 for MS-Windows 3.1). Contrary to popular belief, Visix is not planning (as of 15 June 1994) to drop their policy of requiring (costly) training in order to get an evaluation copy of Galaxy. Visix was founded in 1989 and is privately held. Galaxy has been in development since 1986 and has been on-the-market since 1992. Over 2,000 copies of Galaxy has been licensed to more than 250 companies. WHAT THE USERS SAY: One user says, "If you are looking at cross-platform development environments, you absolutely MUST take a look at Galaxy, from Visix Software. Very good interface builder, covers ALL layers of the API, from GUI to networking, very well designed API, C++ version, etc. [...] We have had good results with it so far." Another user agrees, "I've been using their software for almost 2 years now and I love it", adding, "I lead a project that had > 80K lines of C / C++ that had less than 100 lines [different] between the SunOS and MS-Windows versions." But others chide them for their 1 week class requirement for an evaluation copy, "I looked at Galaxy. It seems to be a nice package, but [...] If you want to give it a try, you MUST take their 1 week class for about $1800.00 and what manager is going to allocate funds", "... and time [...] This required one week trip to Visix class was probably the reason we ended up with another package." REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: These guys have been extremely helpful getting their portion of this FAQ going. I think that this could be indicative of seriously superlative support (that's an awful lot of alliteration). Using their C product produces extremely verbose code; it seems to me that they should hide more of the detail from the programmer. Most of the extraneous code can be cut from their examples and pasted into your application, but good luck figuring out what that code does. On the other hand, once the cut-and-paste tango is accomplished, one can achieve quite good results. As with many other PIGUIs I've seen, the learning curve is nearly vertical (and the documentation doesn't help much) but once you've gotten used to the API, you can get some neat things done. NAME: Guild VENDOR: Guild 1710 S. Amphlett 2nd Fl. San Mateo, California 94402 (415) 513-6650 (voice) (415) 349-4908 (fax) SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: This is a C-language library, but they're type-safe for C++ compatibility. The package includes a GUI builder and an event occurrence monitor. Additional features in the library includes support for international character sets, portable file system support and nifty C-language classes for pie-charts, 3d bars, x-y plots, and the like. OPTIONS: Graphic Modeling $995 Oracle Database Bridge $395 ODBC Database Access $495 SUPPORT: Three month free phone tech support. After that, its $100 per month or $1000 per year (the latter including free upgrades). FUTURE PLANS: They're working on a Unix/Motif version. WHAT THE USERS SAY: Problems include "no file, printing or memory management support", according to Richard Chimera (carm@cs.umd.edu). NAME: ILOG Views VENDOR: ILOG Inc. 2105 Landings Drive Mountain View, CA 94943 (415) 390-9000 (voice) (415) 390-0946 (fax) email: info@ilog.com WWW: http://www.ilog.fr/ilog/home.html SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: ILOG Views is a portable C++ library of graphical objects. This product includes a GUI editor for developing both standard and 'very' graphical user interfaces. ILOG Views seems to be targeted at graphics intensive applications; they claim it can display 10,000 graphic objects per second, for example, on standard a PC. ILOG Views has several levels at which one can operate including the line-and-box level (with PostScript support), the 2-D object level, the object manager level (move groups, do rotation of groups), or the power-widgets level (which covers not only stuff like spreadsheets, but also things like a gantt editor). This library provides portable graphics, double buffering, persistent objects (using ASCII files), and IPC (sockets and RPC). Appearantly, ILOG Views won The X Journal's 1995 Editor's Choice Award! OPTIONS: ILOG BUILDER (a GUI builder that generates OSF/Motif interfaces). ILOG DB LINK (RDBMS connection library) ILOG SERVER SUPPORT: COMMENTS: ILOG is a 110 person ISV focussed on C++ development tools. ILOG wad created in 1987. NAME: JAM/Pi 5.03 (6.0, reportedly, is on the way) VENDOR: JYACC, Inc. New York, New York (212) 267-7722 (voice) SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: This is a C-language library. The package includes a GUI builder. OPTIONS: JAM/DBi Database Interface JAM/Rw Report Writer FUTURE PLANS: Version 6.0 is due out soon. This is supposed to be quiet a bit better in the GUI arena than they've done in the past. WHAT THE USERS SAY: One user says "We have been using JAM 5.03 [...] and am not entirely happy with it. [...] no scrollbars in the CUI version, no buttons [...] The CUI does not follow any accepted style (like Motif or MS Windows)" NAME: libWxm VENDOR: Visual Solutions 487 Groton Road Westford, MA 01886 (508) 392-0100 (voice) (508) 692-3102 (fax) Email: sales@vissol.com SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: libWxm emulates the MS Windows (win32/s) API. They support dialogs, resources, bitmaps, child windows and controls, custom controls, fonts, and GDI commands. FUTURE PLANS: MDI support, postscript printing, and DDE support. NAME: MAINWin/CDK v1.1 VENDOR: MAINSoft Corporation 1270 Oakmead parkway, suite 310 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (800) MAIN-WIN (inquiries) (415) 896-0708 (fax inquiries) (408) 774-3400 (voice) (408) 774-3404 (fax) Email: info@mainsoft.com WWW: http://www.mainsoft.com/ SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: MAINWin is a portable implementation (to any system offering POSIX compliance and Xlib) of the MS Windows API (including the Microsoft Foundation Classes 2.0 and 3.0) on Unix/X-Windows. They support DDEML, Win32 message format, and most of the Win32s APIs. The CDK includes printer support, a resource compiler, a help compiler (they have support for Winhelp using the windows .hlp files), a makefile generator plus some additional tools. The software's output runs directly on Xlib, and does not require Motif software. MAINWin allows the user to switch look-and-feel (between MS-Windows and Motif) from the system menu at run-time. In order to run a MAINWin application on a Unix workstation, users need a copy of the "MAINWin for Workstations" product for each machine on which the code runs. MAINWin offers porting tools for MS Windows resources, the MS Windows hypertext help system (which uses the original rtf-format help files), shared libraries (DLLs), fonts, postscript printing, dynamic data exchange (DDE), and MS Windows Device Context APIs. Also included in this code is support for the Microsoft MFC 2.0 class library. Finally, MAINWin includes their DDR technology to provide PC-compatible file structures across all systems. Documentation for with MAINWin includes the "MAINWin Cross- Development Guide", the "MAINWin API Function Call Status" document and the "MAINWin API Message and Control Status" document. MAINWin's optional developer program includes a weekly status of issues reported to MAINSoft. FUTURE PLANS: MAINSoft plans to support OLE/OLE2 and the Chicago API and look. They also plan to provide the MAINWin/Device Driver Kit. COMMENTS: MAINSoft has entered into a source code license agreement with Microsoft. This agreement allows MAINSoft to incorporate MS-Windows code into their product. In addition, MAINWin includes something they call DOS Data Representation technology into their toolkit. This allows the user to use MS-DOS format files under the other platforms supported by their software. NAME: Menuet/CPP VENDOR: Autumn Hill Software, Inc. 1145 Ithaca Drive Boulder, Co. 80303 (303) 494-8865 (voice) (303) 494-7802 (fax) SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: Menuet/CPP is a C++ product (they also have a vanilla 'C' product). They have a product called an Application Generator -- anyone know what this is? NAME: MEWEL User Interface Library, Version 4.1 VENDOR: Magma Systems 15 Bodwell Terrace Millburn, NJ 07041 (201) 912-0192 (voice) (201) 912-0103 (fax) (201) 912-0668 (BBS, 9600-1200, N-8-1) 75300.2062@compuserve.com (Magma has a vendor support conference on CIS) magma@bix.com (Magma has a vendor support conference on BIX) SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: MEWEL is a portable implementation of the MS Windows API; MEWEL/Motif is an implementation of the Windows API, MFC, and OWL for Motif. It is a C library, but is type-safe for C++. You can program your applications in C, or can use Microsoft's MFC, Borland's OWL, Liant's C++/Views, or wxWindows. MEWEL supports the usual stuff including icons, MDI, dialog boxes. MEWEL/Pro supports the 16 and 32-bit extenders that come with Borland PowerPack, Pharlap 286, Pharlap 386/TNT, Watcom/Rational DOS/4GW, and DJGPP's GO32. MEWEL is the only user interface library that can be implemented totally as a DOS DLL under Borland's PowerPack. A "lite" version of MEWEL is distributed with the DOS text and DOS graphics versions of zApp. Their product has also been ported to Gnu C++ (DJGPP) on the PC. FUTURE PLANS: "We are working on a version for MFC/NT [Microsoft Foundation Classes/Windows NT] using Pharlap TNT extender, but it's not ready yet." One nifty ramification of this is that one will be able to use MEWEL and the Pharlap DOS extender in order to port Windows NT applications to DOS. COMMENTS: You can download demos and info from ftp://ftp.uu.net/vendor/uno/ NAME: Microsoft Foundation Classes (Microsoft) VC++ 2.0 Cross-Development Edition for Macintosh VC++ 2.0 For Intel and MIPS Platforms VENDOR: Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, Washington 98052-6399 (206) 882-8080 (voice) (206) 93M-SFAX (fax) SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: Microsoft's Visual C++ is, of course, more than just a PIGUI; this suite of products includes both compilers and libraries for the various platforms they support. 'Microsoft Visual C++' for the Intel and MIPS platforms targets MS-Windows-based operating systems and 'Visual C++ Cross-Development Edition for Macintosh' (which I'll call VC++CDE:Mac, for short =^>) targets, well, the Macintosh (System 7). The Mac edition supports MFC, version 3.0. To produce Mac-targeted programs, you must develop your software on a Windows NT server and cross-compile to the Mac platform. VC++CDE:Mac includes a cross-compiler, libraries, and porting tools to build Mac-specific widgets and help flag various nonportable constructs. Note: cross-development capability from Microsoft does not come string-free. Call Microsoft's fax back service at 206-635-2222 and select document No. 206 for a complete license agreement. COMMENTS: Microsoft was founded in 1975. FUTURE PLANS: Future editions of Visual C++ will include support for PowerPC(TM) for both the Apple(R) Macintosh and Windows NT operating systems. Microsoft also plans to produce Visual C++ for Alpha AXP(TM) platforms. WHAT THE USERS SAY: Quick to port, slow to run (on the Mac, anyway). It also makes pretty big executables on the Mac. NAME: NuTCRACKER X/SDK VENDOR: DataFocus, Inc. 12450 Fair Lakes Circle, Suite 400 Fairfax, VA 22033 (800) 637-8034 (voice) (703) 818-1532 (fax) SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: NuTCRACKER is an implementation of the Motif API (as well as some of the standard Unix calls) under Windows/NT. In addition, they provide a non-X Windows SDK which allows curses users to port their code (I don't know if this ports to Windows or an MS-DOS window running curses). They have an internal deployment seat (called the X/OE) which costs $495. For outside distribution, there's a $5K/100 seats or a $20K buy out price tag. Besides GUI portability, NuTCRACKER also supports Unix process control, Unix IPC mechanisms (i.e., shared memory, named pipes, BSD sockets, and semaphores) as well as some of Unix's security features. SUPPORT: Each purchase (or evaluation copy) of NuTCRACKER comes with 30 days of free support via telephone, fax, or e-mail. After that, you can purchase Schedule A support (voice, fax, and e-mail with a maximum 24 hour response time) for $2000/year or the Schedule B support (fax and e-mail only with a 48 hour maximum response time) for $500/year. FUTURE PLANS: Their next release will support Daytona and the VC++ 2.0 compiler. They have committed to supporting Windows 95 (was Chicago) and Windows NT on the PowerPC. NAME: Open Interface Elements, Version 3.0 VENDOR: Neuron Data 156 University Avenue, Palo Alto, California 94301 (800) 876-4900 (inquiries) (415) 321-4488 (voice) SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: Open Interface is an emulated PIGUI with a C++ API (as of Open Interface Elements 3.0). The software also comes with a WYSIWYG GUI builder which includes a script language that can co-exist with C or C++. Their C++ approach no longer uses a wrappers approach! They include tons of extra widgets (which they call "Power Widgets") like business graphics (bar, pie, and line charts), images (all standard formats), a hypertext widget, and context-sensitive hypertext help. Other software in Open Interface includes international character support, portable drag-and-drop, multi-font support, full printer support, memory management, file I/O support as well as MS-Windows DDE support (the latter is, of course, non-portable). OPTIONS: "Nexpertobject" is an expert systems tool intended for GUI development. "C/S Elements" is a client/server for tying UI components to one of many supported relational databases. This allows the UI to control the database and changes in the database to be propagated back into the UI. "Smart Elements" is for integrating knowledge-based systems with Neuron's GUI stuff. This allows changes to objects in the knowledge based system to be propagated to the UI and vice versa. In addition, these are integrated with a scripting language which causes changes in both the knowledge base and the UI. COMMENTS: Open Interface is an emulated GUI, that attempts to superset the features from the various GUIs they support. Particularly if one looks at Neuron Data's optional products, one can see a leaning toward support of DBMS and expert systems. These guys claim to have 35% of the market share for PIGUI tools (including some heavyweights like IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and AT&T). WHAT THE USERS SAY: One user says, "[They've] Implemented all kinds of ideas such as being able to add items to scrolling lists using the += operator in C++ etc etc etc. Found some bugs, but support was brilliant, and new releases were always pushing the frontiers forward. All bug reports have met with speedy response. It is expensive, but worth it. Great for object-oriented development." Another user agrees, "The only one [PIGUI] I would recommend is Neuron Data's Open Interface.". However, one user cautions, "I [only] recommend doing development on a UNIX box or a Mac with this tool. The person using our [MS] windows copy has had some problems with ND corrupting its own data files and/or crashing windows." Another complaint I seem to be seeing concerns slow and poor technical support. NAME: ObjectViews C++ VENDOR: Quest Windows Corporation 4677 Old Ironsides Drive Santa Clara, CA 95054 (408) 496-1900 (voice) (408) 988-8357 (fax) SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: This is a full C++ class library. It is a superset of a non- proprietary API based on "InterViews". It includes Motif 1.2 Drag and Drop and Tear-off Menus. It allows full access to native Xlib, PEX, SDK, and Mac toolkit. SUPPORT: One hour free. After that, it costs (I'm not sure how much). NAME: OpenUI, v3.1 VENDOR: Open Software Associates 20 Trafalgar Square, 5th Floor Nashua, NH 03063 (800) 441-4330 (voice) (603) 886-4330 (voice) (603) 598-6877 (fax) Email: info@osa.com WWW: http://www.osa.com.au/ SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: This interface supports C, Pascal, (ish) COBOL, and Ada. Not only is the C type safe for C++, but they're willing to supply a native C++ API if there's enough demand. The software comes with a WYSIWYG GUI builder. They also have a "platform pack", a less-expensive, de-featured package which allows software developed with OpenUI to be ported to other platforms. Their code supports stand-alone as well as client (GUI) / server (Logic) application development. A client/server application can be developed in stand-alone mode. When you purchase the product, you receive 90 days of fax and e-mail support. Purchased support adds-in phone access as well as product updates. In addition to GUI portability, OpenUI provides TCP/IP and DecNet support. COMMENTS: Open Software Associates have rewritten their integrated development environment (IDE). Open Software Associates has been around since 1990. WHAT THE USERS SAY: Says one user, "Support is brilliant, among the best I have ever seen in the computer industry. Comes with a [GUI] builder, allows generation of new GUI classes using a concept of soft-classes (not quite inheritance, but fairly powerful). Good for when multi- platform support is needed, but not as powerful as OI for a single GUI application. They will port to other hardware fairly quickly. We got the SUN port within a month." Problems include "no file, printing or memory management support", according to Richard Chimera (carm@cs.umd.edu -- from a report "Evaluation of Platform Independent Interface Builders", dated March 1993). NAME: Object Windows Library, v2.5 VENDOR: Borland International, Incorporated 100 Borland Way Scotts Valley, California 95066-3249 (408) 431-1000 (voice) WWW: http://www.borland.com/ SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: The Object Windows Library (OWL) ships with Borland's C++ compilers for MS-Windows and OS/2. This library addresses both 16 and 32 bit MS-Windows and provides over 200 classes that provide the usual stuff plus extra graphical widgets (like toolbars, status lines, and palettes). OWL supports graphics classes and printing. OWL under OS/2 supports a subset of the functionality available under OWL for MS-Windows. COMMENTS: Borland was founded in 1983. WHAT THE USERS SAY: NAME: Presentation Services Manager VENDOR: Lancorp Pty Ltd 33 Nott St Port Melbourne 3207 Australia +61 3 646 7100 (voice) +61 3 646 8610 (fax) SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: No WYSIWYG GUI builder exists, but they do include a script language. NAME: Screen Machine, V1.41 VENDOR: Objective Interface Systems, Inc. 1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 250 Reston, Virginia 22091-5448 (800) 800-OIS7 (inquiries) (703) 264-1900 (voice) (703) 264-1721 (fax) Email: info@ois.com SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: This is an Ada PIGUI which includes a WYSIWYG GUI builder. The product fully supports Ada's built in multi-threading capabilities (protects against non-re-entrant code in the native windowing systems). This allows SQL applications and such to continue processing input from the user while waiting on one or more database transactions. Screen Machine (I have to give them two points for the name alone) includes an Ada code generator that generates layered Ada GUI code that follows the presentation/dialog/application scheme. SUPPORT: Free (with updates) for one year. After that, call for pricing. FUTURE PLANS: OIS is currently developing an Ada94 (fully O-O) parallel implementation of Fresco/C++ (new Xt replacement technology in X11R6). This new Fresco_Ada(tm) will offer the same object embedding (via CORBA), multi-threading support, resolution independence, multiple look-and-feel emulation, and structured graphics that the C++ version of Fresco. The CORBA interface will allow Fresco_Ada applications to transparently interoperate with Fresco/C++ applications. OIS is extending the product to include a full MVC paradymn and fully automatic memory reclaimation. Windows NT and Windows 4.0 versions are planned in addition to the VMS and Unix X Windows versions. NAME: StarView 2.1 VENDOR: Star Division 2180 Sand Hill Road, Suite 320 Menlo Park, CA 94025 (800) 888-8527 (inquiries) (415) 233-0142 (fax) Email: svinfo@stardiv.de SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: This is a full C++ class library that comes with their DesignEditor which creates resource files. Some of the classes include SplitBar (a splittable scrollbar like a spreadsheet uses), tool boxes, status bars, file dialogs, and MS-Windows bitmap support via file stream IO. Other features/portability capabilities include international language support (being a German company selling software in the states, this makes a lot of sense) but not multi-byte character sets, full printer support (including page preview), endian-aware classes, platform-independent file specification, and drag&drop support. This product also comes with several general-purpose C++ classes including Strings and a very complete complement of container classes (e.g., Queues, Lists, and Tables). These classes are included in a Microsoft Windows DLL for reduced memory usage. COMMENTS: These guys are using their own code (originally written in C++, I might add) to put together a multi-platform word processor. Their word processor guys keep their PIGUI guys informed of any incompatibilities. One really neat thing is that they've ported Microsoft's help to other platforms. They have special (though non-portable) Microsoft Windows OLE and DDE classes. FUTURE PLANS: OS/2 & NT in beta. They are working on OLE 2.0 classes as well. WHAT THE USERS SAY: Most of the reports that I've seen on StarView have been extremely favorable with emphasis on their intuitive API. Ian Upright (Ian_Upright@mindlink.bc.ca), for example, says "If you're doing [PIGUI] development, I think you'd be insane to not check out StarView as an option. [...] The entire design of the library is very intelligent and VERY well thought out. [...] It also has system dependent hooks available. Such as the ability to trap [MS] windows messages of a HWND." Other users second this, "Their features for creating graphics and using output devices is marvelous." and "The class library is excellent. It's complete. [...] It's intuitive." User support is their biggest problem. Even though they have two support people and their primary support guy is really helpful, this is still a major issue. "They've got one good tech support guy, Andreas [they've added another]. You may not be able to call and get an immediate answer, as they're not always in." Says another user, "The real disappointment with StarView has been their customer support. We've known times where they didn't return our calls for weeks. They've consistently been late with releases and shipments, and have made promises on the phone that were not kept." REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: The software is new, and it seemed to me to be a bit rough around the edges. I had a review copy, but never got the software to work with Microsoft Windows 3.0 (this is when MS-Windows 3.1 was the most recent version). The support people tried extremely hard to help me, but I had to move on to other things without being able to get it to work. NAME: Simple User Interface Toolkit, v2.3 VENDOR: University of Virginia Email: suit@uvacs.cs.virginia.edu SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: SUIT is a (free-of-charge with strings attached) C-language library. It comes with source, a 10 page tutorial, and a 160 page reference manual. SUIT's prime directive is ease of learning (estimated time to productivity is around 2 hours -- oh, and there is that thing about not interfering with the natural advancement of an indigenous life form, but we won't get into that here =^> ). The software has the unusual trait that it's user-interface is editable even while a SUIT application program is running. SUIT is available with source for free for Universities and non-profit organizations (for-profit organizations can license SUIT for around $25,000). Anyone can download it via anonymous ftp from uvacs.cs.virginia.edu (128.143.8.100) for evaluation purposes. For more information finger 'suit@uvacs.cs.virginia.edu' NAME: VisualWorks v2.0 VENDOR: Openware [?] Email: info@boulder.openware.com SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: VisualWorks is a Smalltalk application development environment and class library for client-server GUI products. The VisualWorks software includes a set of interactive development tools to help you, well, develop your GUI software interactively. In addition, one can use the Chameleon View product to preview the look of an application as if it were running under different windowing managers on the various supported platforms. In addition to all of this, VisualWorks includes an external database interface, currently for Oracle and Sybase. OPTIONS: Advanced Tools - performance benchmarks, complex numbers, extended browser, metanumbers, parser compiler, space use profiler, class analysis and reports (e.g., variables used but not defined). Business Graphics - pie, bar, line, etc., charts DLL & C Connect - parse C header files, call out to DLLs and shared libraries Oracle Connect 2.0 Sybase Connect 2.0 COMMENTS: Apparently (I haven't seen the article, personally) the June 14,1993 issue of Computerworld ranks ParcPlace pretty highly. NAME: Wind/U v2.1 VENDOR: Bristol Technology Inc. 241 Ethan Allen Highway Ridgefield, CT 06877 (203) 438-6969 (voice) (203) 438-5013 (fax) Email: info@bristol.com WWW: http://www.bristol.com/ SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: Wind/U is an implementation of the Microsoft Windows API under Unix/Motif. Wind/U supports Win16 and Win32 and the Microsoft Foundation Classes 3.0 (MFC, the API under Visual C++). It contains custom widgets to allow applications to utilize multiple document interface (MDI), combo boxes, dynamically linked libraries (DLLs), dynamic data exchange (DDE), WinSock, and PostScript and PCL4 and PCL5 (Hewlett Packard's Printer Control Language) printing. You can use your MS Windows Help file source on Unix with Bristol's HyperHelp. In addition, they support the Windows GDI graphics drawing interface, including the coordinate system choices. Finally, they support Common dialog DLLs as well as DDEML (Dynamic Data Exchange Management Library) DLLs. Their toolkit includes several programmer tools including Wind/U Spy (an application that runs under Motif but looks like the MS-Windows Spy program), online documentation, a makefile generation program (to help compile your MS-Windows program under Unix), and other tools to help prepare your PC source for Unix. COMMENTS: Bristol has entered into a source code license agreement with Microsoft. This agreement allows Bristol to incorporate MS-Windows code into their product. Bristol was founded in 1990 and has maintained a profit every quarter since 1992. FUTURE PLANS: HyperHelp V4.0 is also due out this summer and should include improved FrameMaker support, dynamic text retrieval, user reporting, improved printing and searching, and a bunch of other stuff. Bristol has also demonstrated OLE 2.0 on Unix platforms. WHAT THE USERS SAY: One user says, "[Wind/U] is a fairly complete implementation of the Windows API for unix. There are some bugs, and some unimplemented features, but it seems to be getting better over time. Bristol's support for their product is truly excellent: they are very responsive and have been able to provide rapid turnaround for our problems." NAME: WM_MOTIF User Interface Library, v4.1 VENDOR: Software UNO, Ltd. 15 Bodwell Terrace 1259 Fernandez Juncos Ave. Millburn, NJ 07041 San Juan, PR 00907 (800) 840-UNIX (840-8649) (voice) (809) 723-5000 (809) 722-6242 (fax) (201) 912-0668 (BBS, 9600-1200, N-8-1) Email: 73710.3031@compuserve.com (can also use the MAGMA forum) info@uno.com, sales@uno.com SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: WM_MOTIF is a portable implementation of the MS Windows API for Unix Motif and character-based environments. It is a C library, but also supports popular C++ frameworks like Microsoft's MFC or Borland's OWL. A resource compiler is included to port MS-Windows resources to the Unix platforms. WM_MOTIF supports bitmaps, icons, and cursors; UIL is not required. Source code is available. Demo executables are available via anonymous FTP at ftp://ftp.uu.net/vendor/uno. Software UNO also offers an evaluation library to allow developers to compile their own code with the library. FUTURE PLANS: "We are working on Win32 support for the first half of 1995. This will extend WM_MOTIF compatibility to applications developed for NT and Win32s platforms." NAME: WNDX, V2.04 VENDOR: WNDX Suite 418, 1167 Kensington Crescent N.W. Calgary, Alberta Canada T2N 1X7 (403) 283-5590 (voice) (403) 283-6250 (fax) (403) 283-6395 (bbs) Email: support@wndx.com SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: This is a C library which comes bundled with a resource builder (OPUS) capable of creating portable resource files. WNDX provides system-independent graphic drawing routines, window manipulation primitives, and user interaction management routines as well as dialogs, menus, editable and static text items, scrollbars, checkboxes, radio buttons, list items, selection items, icons, color selection items, icon and bitmap items. Printing support is available for the DOS and Windows platforms (only). Programs generated with WNDX can be configured to use the native environment of the platform, or to be identical in appearance and behavior across all platforms. This is accomplished by the use of different "style guides" (source included) which define the look and feel of the particular "style". For example, a simple menu option can change the look and feel of the OPUS application running in Windows from the Windows style guide to the Motif style guide. COMMENTS: According to one article, they've altered concepts that most GUI developers consider conventional. All widgets have all the attributes defined for them (it's just that some of the attributes are meaningless and, therefore, ignored). WNDX describes it differently: The basis of the WNDX paradigm is the Window "object". Each object has an attribute list. Other "objects" are derived from the basic window object and each kind of object adds different customized attributes to the attribute list. There are some problems, like colors are not fully editable and there's no way to put a picture on a button (without fudging). Other complaints include features (like icons) that require special non-portable effort to use in a native look-and-feel. In addition to the platforms supported, a source code license is available for programmers who need to port applications to other UNIX/Motif platforms. Contact WNDX for pricing. FUTURE PLANS: The Mac platform is still on version 2.03. The update is currently in progress. The OS/2 platform port is currently on hold due to a lack of demand. NAME: wxWindows, v1.60 VENDOR: Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute University of Edinburgh 80 South Bridge Edinburgh Scotland EH1 1HN 031 650 2746 (voice) Email: J.Smart@ed.ac.uk WWW: http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~jacs/wxwin.html SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: This is a (free-of-charge) C++ library with source (there's also a version for the Python language). For a GUI builder, you can use wxBuilder (which is available under MS-Windows or Motif), another program they have to translate the output of DevGuide (Sun's XView GUI builder) into wxWindows format, or yet another one to allow one to use Liant's class browser with the library. This package includes hypertext help, printer support (this is better than some packages you have to pay for), and some nifty graphics capabilities including splines, polylines, and rounded rectangles. It includes the standard menu bars, toolbars, pens, brushes, etc. In addition to all of that, it includes IPC features that includes DDE support under MS-Windows *AND* Unix. A CURSES version is in alpha. In addition, wxWindows includes timers, filesystem portability features, as well as PROLOGIO which allows the user to create (apparently, with some limitations) object-oriented, Prolog- compatible data files. COMMENTS: To get this software, anonymous ftp it from ftp.aiai.ed.ac.uk; it's under /pub/packages. This is free software, so one should expect that it has a couple of warts relative to the packages for which one would pay. It (according to the author) doesn't stick too closely to the style guides of the individual platforms, but "most people won't know the difference [... the software has] a long way to go before I've used all the features [of the various GUIs]". Still, the price is right. . . FUTURE PLANS: Widget management (similar to Motif), automated GUI testing facilities, their own GUI builder, and a MS-Windows .rc-to-wxWindows converter. They have a partial Mac port completed. NAME: XVT Portability Toolkit XVT Development Solution for C++ (DSC++) 3.2 XVT Development Solution for C (DSC) 4.0 VENDOR: XVT Software Incorporated 4900 Pearl East Circle Box 18750 Boulder, CO 80308 (800) 678-7988 (inquiries) (303) 443-4223 (voice) (303) 443-0969 (fax) Email: info@xvt.com WWW: http://www.xvt.com/ SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: XVT comes as either a C-language or C++ (called Power++) library. The C solution has bundled with it an interactive design tool and code generator. The C++ solution includes a user interface layout tool (XVT-Architect). XVT provides printing support, drag-and-drop, portable help, portable bitmap support (palette control provides up to 24 bits of color), powerful portable typeface handling capability, and all the standard widgets (including toolbar, status bar, and tables) In addition, Power++ comes with the Rogue Wave product Tools.h++ (Tools.h++ provides 135 extra general-purpose classes). OPTIONS: Source Code (call) XVT Spreadsheet $1125 ($650 for PCs) XVT Graphical Extensions $1600 ($895 for PCs) SUPPORT: Free (with updates) for one year. After that, call for pricing. COMMENTS: XVT is the original PIGUI software. They seem to provide pretty solid support for all the platforms (and, there's a lot) that they support. In addition, the current incarnation of their C++ toolset is generally agreed to be substantially better than their original entry. XVT is receiving major applause for changing their PIGUI approach to be more consistent with the rest of the marketplace. They are getting away from a least-common denominator approach (check-out their portable help for an example of strides in this area) and they are providing more complete packages with fewer optional extras (e.g., XVT now bundles their layout tool with their products). XVT was founded in 1987. WHAT THE USERS SAY: The user's have said that the manuals are good and extremely well organized and that the Designer's test mode actually tests the logic (a really helpful feature). Their tech support is also reportedly pretty good ("wonderous", says one user). In the arena of software development, one user says "...at the end of 2 weeks we had a fully-functional [medium-sized] application on Mac and MOTIF", he goes on to say that the the user-interface was redesigned half way through. Power++ is said to be a fantastic improvement over their old C++ product (Design++). NAME: Yet Another Class Library, v1.1 VENDOR: M. A. Sridhar Department of Computer Science University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 (803) 777-2427 (voice) (803) 777-3767 (fax) Email: sridhar@usceast.cs.scarolina.edu SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: YACL is a free-of-charge general purpose C++ library that includes GUI functionality that adheres to the model-view-controller paradigm. Classes provided by YACL include menus, dialogs, buttons, listboxes, cursors, fonts, pens, colors, and elementary drawing functions. The ultimate goal of YACL is to be a rich virtual platform that includes container classes and I/O classes as well as GUI functionality. COMMENTS: YACL is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.scarolina.edu (129.252.131.11), as the file /pub/sridhar/yacl-011.zip. FUTURE PLANS: The rest of the GUI functionality is being ported to Motif. Versions are being considered for OS/2 and the Mac. In addition, a GUI layout designer is currently under development. NAME: zApp, V2.0 VENDOR: Inmark 2065 Landings Drive, Mountainview, CA 94043 (800) 3-inmark (inquiries) (415) 691-9000 (voice) (415) 691-9099 (fax) Email: sales@inmark.com SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: This is a full C++ class library. This product contains over 200 classes to provide things like DDE support (non-portable), printer support, geometry management, and true-type font support. Included in their package is 75 pre-defined forms (as well as the usual examples) and source code for the class libraries. The software comes with zApp Programmer's Guide (330 pages) and zApp Programmer's Reference (833 pages). OPTIONS: zApp Interface Pack, around 100 extra classes like a spreadsheet- oriented table class, 3-D toolbars, status lines, and 3-D custom controls. This software comes with the zApp Interface Pack Guide (144 pages) and the zApp Interface Pack Reference (158 pages). zApp Factory, a drag-n-drop WYSIWYG builder that includes a code generator. This software comes with the zApp Factory User's Guide (213 pages). The zApp Developer's Suite includes zApp, the zApp Interface Pack, and zApp Factory. This software comes with the 'Getting Started with the Developer's Suite' manual (89 pages). zApp offers training, as well. SUPPORT: Basic support is free. There's also premium support (for extra bux) that includes product upgrades. FUTURE PLANS: Mac support (but I wouldn't count on this any time soon). zApp (and the zApp Interface Pack) versions 2.2 are scheduled for release any minute now. These releases should have full support for DLL's. The X/Motif version of zApp is currently in limited release and will go into general release in early November. zApp Factory will also be released on X/Motif in November. Inmark is also working on a portable help product that will be released early next year. COMMENTS: The zApp class libraries were originally coded in C++. WHAT THE USERS SAY: The customer-interface is great. Their BBS is said to provide a faster response than does CompuServe. zApp receives many plaudits. Many users really like their class structure. One user says "zApp contains without a doubt the absolute best C++ code I have ever seen. It is an amazingly simple, intuitive interpretation of GUI and OOP interfaces". Another user says, "zApp is an EXCELLENT platform-independent API. If you truly must write your code "once" for multiple platforms, zApp is the C++ solution to get." Also revered is the zApp Factory tool. A big complaint seems to be that zApp is quite apparently MS-Windows-oriented. Many of their classes and idioms don't translate well (or at all) to other platforms. For example, one user says "my disappointment [with zApp] stems from my Mac expectations." Another user agrees, "The [MS] Windows version works rather better than the OS/2 version". In order to do substantial work under MS-DOS Graphics mode, Inmark has told users to purchase MEWEL Library. Another user corroborates: "To use zApp in [MS-DOS] Graphics mode you WILL need to buy MEWEL Professional [, and a memory extender such as] PharLap/286 or Borland PowerPacks". A, possibly anachronistic, comment I've heard is "it has A LOT of memory leaks". On the other hand, Inmark has been listening to the complaints of it's customers, "We have been very diligent in tracking memory leaks and memory issues with zApp. The latest versions of zApp have been verified with [an in-house product, SmartHeap, BoundsChecker, and Purify]." Other miscellaneous complaints include lack of DLL support, no portable help files, and zApp Factory regenerates all source code even when only one line is changed. NAME: Zinc, V4.0 VENDOR: ZINC Software Incorporated 405 South 100 East 2nd Floor Pleasant Grove, UT 84062 (800) 638 8665 (inquires) (801) 785-8900 (voice) (801) 785-8996 (fax) (801) 785-8997 (bbs) Email: tech@zinc.com WWW: http://www.zinc.com/ SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: This is a full C++ class library that comes with the Zinc Designer (a WYSIWYG GUI builder). Their classes include a rather nice error system, geometry management, print support, VROOM support (for Borland heads), index tabs, status bars, sliders, spinners, some graphic capabilities, and a portable, if rudimentary, help system. Also included is the source for the library (and for the Designer!). In addition to the usual GUI stuff, Zinc also provides international character support (they have a Unicode version for extra bux) and some container classes. The software comes with 4 manuals. These include 2 reference manuals, a getting started manual, and a document covering their designer. OPTIONS: They'll provide Unicode at extra cost (price, unspecified). Additionally, they provide a video training series (this gives lots of Zinc internals detail, but not a lot of relief for the novice programmer) for $499. COMMENTS: Zinc's direction seems to be the international market along with support for the marketeers-do-the-GUI-while-programmers-do-the-code crowd. That said, they promise that they'll not forget about the applications and scientific programmers as they grow. To use their product to its fullest, you have to use their GUI builder (the only way you can get icons on all platforms, for example, is through the Designer). Zinc has made big changes to their Designer (their GUI builder) targeted, it seems, to provide a comfortable GUI design environment for non-programmers. The updates include easing the addition of user-defined widgets to the designer, parallelizing the main-design-screen/image-editor/help-editor, and replacing flag names with more user-friendly english descriptions. They have completely rewritten their manuals (and the crowd goes wild...) to reduce the learning curve associated with this product. Zinc was founded in 1990. FUTURE PLANS: The utilization of the native help system and improved graphics support. WHAT THE USERS SAY: Users praise the look and feel under DOS. Many complain about the lack of intuitive feel of the API. Personally, I think that the API is pretty good but the documentation does a really poor job of explaining it. REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: Once you get used to the paradigm, it *is* pretty straight-forward to program. Their improved documentation is a big help and shows off some of Zinc's more powerful features. In addition, the software is becoming more robust with each release. VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to the many netters that have helped give information and general impressions of the software packages listed here. Also thanks to the vendors for keeping this FAQ accurate and up-to-date. In specific, I'd like to thank Eric Raymond (esr@snark.thyrsus.com), 'cause I stole his UNIX FAQ format for use here. Thanks, Eric. I looked at some articles about GUIs for information. Those include: Steve Apiki, "Paths to Platform Independence", Byte, January 1994, pp. 172-178 Richard Chimera, carm@cs.umd.edu, "Evaluation of Platform Independent Interface Builders", Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, University of Maryland, dated March 1993. Carl Dichter, "One For All. . .", UNIX Review, October 1993, pp. 65-74 Thomas Murhpy, "Looking at the world through cheap sunglasses", Computer Language, February 1993, pp. 63-85 UNIX Review Staff, "Outstanding Products of 1993", UNIX Review, December 1993, pp. 47-54 Scott Mace, "Windows-to-Mac bridge now open", InfoWorld, Nov. 7, 1994, p21 -- Wade Guthrie | "You can't let him in here, he'd see the wade@nb.rockwell.com | Big Board!" I don't speak for Rockwell. |