Motif Programming Manual, Vol 6a (Definitive Guides to the X Window System) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Paula Ferguson (Author), David Brennan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The Motif Programming Manual is a source for complete, accurate, and insightful guidance on Motif application programming. There is no other book that covers the ground as thoroughly or as well as this one. The Motif Programming Manual describes how to write applications using the Motif toolkit from the Open Software Foundation (OSF). The book goes into detail on every Motif widget class, with useful examples that will help programmers to develop their own code. Anyone doing Motif programming who doesn't want to have to figure it out on their own needs this book. In addition to information on Motif, the book is full of tips about programming in general and about user interface design. It includes a tutorial on UIL; coverage of drag-and-drop, tear-off menus, and internationalization as implemented in the Motif widgets such as Text and TextField; plus the entire book has been checked for accuracy with Motif 1.2 (while remaining usable with Motif 1.1). Complements Volume 6B, Motif Reference Manual.

From the Publisher

The Motif Programming Manual is a source for complete, accurate, and insightful guidance on Motif application programming. There is no other book that covers the ground as thoroughly or as well as this one. The book has been updated to Motif 1.2, but is still usable with Motif 1.1. The Motif Programming Manual describes how to write applications using the Motif toolkit from the Open Software Foundation (OSF). The book goes into detail on every Motif widget class, with useful examples that will help programmers to develop their own code. Anyone doing Motif programming who doesn't want to have to figure it out on their own needs this book. In addition to information on Motif, the book is full of tips about programming in general and about user interface design. Contents include: An introduction to the Motif programming model, how it is based on the X Toolkit Intrinsics, and how it differs from them. Chapters on each of the Motif widget classes, explaining them in depth, with useful examples that will help you to improve your own code. For example, the chapter on menus shows how to develop utility functions that generalize and simplify menu creation. All of the code shown in the book is available free of charge over the Internet or via UUCP. Coverage of the drag-and-drop mechanism for transferring data. Two extensive examples show how to implement custom drag source and drop site functionality in a Motif application. A tutorial on UIL. The chapters on UIL describe all of the techniques used to create an interface with this prototyping tool. The numerous examples cover the basics and explore ways to use UIL to facilitate rapid prototyping. The book assumes competence with the C programming language, as well as familiarity with fundamental X Window System concepts. The Motif Programming Manual is not only the most comprehensive guide to writing applications with Motif, it is an integral part of the most widely used series of books on X as a whole. It complements and builds upon the earlier books in the X Window System Series from O'Reilly & Associates, as well as on OSF's own Motif Style Guide. Best when paired with Volume 6B, Motif Reference Manual.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1006 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 2 edition (September 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565920163
• ISBN-13: 978-1565920163
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #255,266 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and throrough guide to Motif, June 1, 2000

By	Marc P. Raaphorst "vorpal20" (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I received this book for Christmas last year (nothing like O'Reilly in your stocking to make for a good Christmas!) and didn't get a chance to start it until a few weeks ago. I am now about halfway through and I must say that this is an excellent book! It is well-written, interesting, and thorough. The example programs are all extremely helpful assisting the reader in understanding the subject matter. Now that Motif has become open sourced, I urge all Linux and UNIX developers to pick up a copy of this book and give Motif programming a try!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yup, this is it..., September 30, 2002

By	Jo Totland (Oslo, Oslo Norway) - See all my reviews

This book explains most everything you need to know about Motif. The manual pages will cover the rest. The book is self-contained, and unless you are really interested in low-level details, there is little reason to purchase the Xlib and Xt books. Motif is mostly self-contained, and the few Xt and Xlib-calls you need to make is described in this manual (and they also have manpages).

Of course, if you are writing a new application today, you might be wiser and go with a modern toolkit like GTK or Qt, but for the maintenance programmer (aren't we all?), this book still has lots of value.