Re: python/stdwin/motif

Jon Vander Hill (jcv26@cas.org)
Mon, 10 May 93 13:01:59 EDT

>>>>> On Mon, 10 May 93 8:50:25 PDT, Lance Ellinghouse <lance@markv.com> said:

> Incorrect. Almost every PC X-windows package supports Motif, almost every
> UNIX platforms supports Motif, Even Mac-X supports Motif.. Remember,
> once the application is compiled and linked with Motif libraries,
> the Widget set is INDEPENDENT of the supplied X-windows system since
> everything folds down to Xlib. The server does not have to have
> Motif on it at all..

Anyone running Motif applications on under Sun's OpenWindows can
attest to that! SunOS is the only UNIX I know of that doesn't ship
with a Motif library (although I heard they were handing one out
at a recent developers conference). Sun is supposed to have a Motif
library in Solaris 2.2.

> Motif is going into the public domain. It will no longer be owned by OSF
> in the very near future. it will be similar to X then. You will
> be able to FTP and grab the Motif sources (Don't ask me the source
> of my info).

Okay I won't ask (but I'm intensely curious). Can you provide a time
frame? Personally, I think this must happen for UNIX vendors to
survive the NT juggernaut.

>> I think that the underlying question is: who is using Python and
for >> what? As a newcomer to Python and this list I have no idea
about that. >> My own main interest is cross-platform non-standard
(so: not MS-Win, >> Motif, OpenLook etc.) GUI prototyping. > ^^^^^^^^
OpenLook is dead. Sun is dropping it completely.

As I understand it, Sun is moving toward an interoperability standard
(along with basically any UNIX vendor who doesn't want to get blown
away by NT) of which Motif is a part. How much of this is mere
corporate posturing is anyone's guess given that Windows NT is
still not a product. I give OpenLook about two more years as support
gradually diminishes.

Overall, I think Motif and Python would be good for eachother.

Jon Vander Hill
jon@cas.org