Using Motif in the Common Desktop Environment

The The Common Desktop Environment includes Motif 2.1, plus four custom widgets. The custom widgets are described in detail in this chapter.

The Common Desktop Environment is source and binary compatible with Motif 1.2 applications. Existing Motif 1.2 applications will compile using Motif 2.1 include files. Existing Motif 1.2 binaries will run without modification using Motif 2.1 libraries.

Motif Libraries

Use the Motif 2.1 and X11R6.2 libraries to develop a Common Desktop Environment Motif-compliant application for the X Window System.

Motif Library (libXm)

Common Desktop Environment provides all the Motif 2.1 header files.

Motif UIL Library (libUil)

The Motif User Interface Language (UIL) is a specification language for describing the initial state of a Motif application's user interface.

Include the uil/UilDef.h header file to access UIL.

Motif Resource Manager Library (libMrm)

The Motif Resource Manager (MRM) creates widgets based on definitions contained in User Interface Definition (UID) files created by the UIL compiler. MRM interprets the output of the UIL compiler and generates the appropriate argument lists for widget creation functions. Use libMrm to access the Motif Resource Manager.

Include the Mrm/MrmPublic.h header files to access libMrm in your application.

Usability Enhancements

Motif 2.1 contains minor enhancements to enable better usability by OPEN LOOK and Microsoft Windows users. The usability enhancements include:

Enabling button two on a three-button mouse to be used to extend the current selection. This functionality is equivalent to the OPEN LOOK ADJUST mouse button.
Enabling Tab to be used to move through a group of PushButton widgets and gadgets, ArrowButton widgets and gadgets, and DrawnButton widgets.
Enabling button 3 to activate a CascadeButton menu.
Providing three new resources (pathMode, fileFilterStyle, and dirTextLabelString) for the XmFileSelectionBox widget, which gives it a new look and feel. See the Common Desktop Environment: Programmer's Overview for details about the new XmFileSelectionBox resources.
Enabling interoperability with Microsoft Windows and OPEN LOOK by providing multiple key bindings for Motif virtual keys.

Each of the preceding enhancements can be controlled by a resource: either a widget resource (for XmFileSelectionBox) or an application-wide resource (all other cases). The default values for this resource provide behavior and an API that is identical to that of Motif 1.2. For information on these enhancements and resources, see the XmDisplay(3x) and XmFileSelectionBox(3x) man pages.

Visual Enhancements

Common Desktop Environment changes the default Motif look in the following ways:

RadioBox fill color is changed to show state more clearly.
RadioBox shape is changed from diamond to circular.
A check glyph is added to the CheckBox to show state more clearly.
CascadeButtons and menu items are changed to have an etched-in border when active.
Thumb is removed from the read-only Scale to distinguish it from the Scale.
Default shadow thickness is changed to 1 pixel.
Default highlight thickness is changed to 1 pixel.
Default PushButton visual draws the highlight inside the button's default shadow.

An application-wide resource can control each of these enhancements. The default Motif 2.1 values for these resources provide behavior and an API that is identical to that of Motif 1.2.

For information on these enhancements, see the XmDisplay(3), XmPushButton(3), XmPushButtonGadget(3), XmToggleButton(3), XmToggleButtonGadget(3), and XmScale(3) man pages.

Using Motif in the Common Desktop Environment

Technical documentation

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