X Window System for A/UX 2.1: Xt and Athena Widget Set


Article Change History
----------------------
08/31/92 - REVIEWED
* For technical accuracy.


X Window System for A/UX 2.1 supports Xlib and the X Toolkit. Is the
X Toolkit the same as the Xt toolkit? Does the X Toolkit include the
MIT Athena Widget set? What makes up the MIT Athena Widget set, and
what is its relationship to X Toolkit?

The X Toolkit in X Window System 2.1 for A/UX is the standard toolkit from
MIT known as the X Toolkit. The Xt is short for X Toolkit.

In order to better understand the components of X, here is a summary of
each component:

- Xlib (/usr/lib/libX11.a)
The standard C language library interface to X, which defines an
extensive set of functions that provides complete access and control
over the display, windows, and input devices such as mouse and keyboard.

- X Toolkit (/usr/lib/libXt.a)
The high-level toolkits designed for use with X to build applications
easily.

The X Toolkit consists of two parts:

* The Xt Intrinsics
Xt Intrinsics supports many different widget sets. Yes, X Window
System 2.1 for A/UX supports the Athena Widget Set from MIT.

* The X Widgets set
The X Widgets set implements user interface components which include
scroll bars, menu, and buttons. The Xt Intrinsics provides a
framework that allows the programmer to combine these components to
produce a complete user interface. The entire MIT Athena Widgets
Set for X Window System 2.1 for A/UX has been built and kept in the
/usr/lib/libXaw.a library. You can see all modules (Box, Form,
Scrollbar, and so on) of the Widget set from the output of
"ar-tv /usr/lib/libXaw.a".

Both the Xt Intrinsics and the X Widgets set are written in C and
built on top of Xlib. In short, the X Toolkit includes a layer known
as the Xt Intrinsics which defines an architecture for combining user
interface components known as widgets to create an application user
interface.


Published Date: Feb 18, 2012