Motif and XView Interoperability

1

The XView toolkit included in Solaris releases implements the OPEN LOOK^(R) "look and feel." Because OPEN LOOK and Motif^(R) standards differ, XView clients (applications) do not interoperate properly with Motif clients and the Motif window manager in some cases. This chapter describes interoperability issues for the current Solaris release.

Note - The openwin window system start up script includes a new option that allows the user to start the Motif Window Manager instead of the OPEN LOOK Window Manager.

Motif and XView Client Interoperability

Motif and XView clients experience interoperability problems in two areas: selections and drag and drop.

Selections

Motif supports three modes of selection: primary, secondary, and clipboard. XView supports these modes, also, but uses a different mechanism for primary and secondary selections. Motif and XView, then, do not interoperate for these two types of selections. The Motif primary copy operation cannot copy into an XView client. Motif clients cannot perform a quick copy/paste operation into an XView client, or vice versa.

In the C locale, a user can use cut, copy, and paste properly between Motif and XView clients. This functionality might not work in other locales.

Drag and Drop

Motif and XView use different internal protocols and user interface paradigms for drag and drop. Thus an end user cannot drag and drop data between Motif and XView applications.

Motif Window Manager and XView Client Interoperability

The Motif window manager and XView clients experience interoperability problems in four areas: XView clients with two base windows, window decoration, XView Text Editor, and Focus Follows Mouse for XView Clients.

XView Clients with Two Base Windows

If an XView application in a Motif environment (with the Motif Window Manager running) has two base windows, and the user quits one window, then the entire application quits.

Window Decoration

XView applications need to communicate with the Motif Window Manager to control their window decorations. The XView toolkit will implement the Motif Close menu button, Resize corners, and the Window title.

XView Text Editor Client

If a user is editing with Text Editor in a Motif environment, and decides to quit the application, Text Editor does not produce a notice asking if he wants to perform a save operation first.

Focus Follows Mouse

When a user starts the Motif Window Manager with FocusPolicy -PointerLocation, Motif clients get the focus immediately. XView clients do not get the focus; the user must click on the client to get the focus.