OPEN LOOK Versus Solaris Motif Toolkits

When you compare an OPEN LOOK application with its Solaris Motif counterpart, a few contrasting visual elements are immediately apparent. For example, the OPEN LOOK buttons are round whereas the Solaris Motif buttons are square. The shading applied to buttons and other objects for a three-dimensional appearance are also different. Although such cosmetic elements do not affect a program's behavior, and can often be disregarded when porting, your application will not be CDE style-guide compliant if you deviate from the CDE look.

Several differences are often significant in a conversion effort. The most critical of these features and other GUI elements are summarized in three sections:

• Aspects of the OPEN LOOK user interface that are missing from Solaris Motif

• Aspects of Solaris Motif that do not appear in the OPEN LOOK user interface

• Features or other elements that appear in both specifications but are implemented differently

See the Preface for a list of style guides and other references that describe the OPEN LOOK and Solaris Motif GUIs.

See Appendix A, User Interaction Changes for a more detailed list of the user interaction changes from OPEN LOOK to CDE.

Features Only in the OPEN LOOK User Interface

The following features are found in the OPEN LOOK user interface and are implemented in XView or OLIT (or both) but do not appear in Solaris Motif:

• Split window control

• Scrollbar anchors

• Defaults of the menu

  • Automatic default; shortcut method for selecting the default

  • Default menu item indicated by a ring

• Font chooser widget

• Pointer warping in notices

• Can drop onto minimized windows (icons)

Features Only in the Solaris Motif User Interface

The following features are found in Solaris Motif and not in the OPEN LOOK user interface:

• Front Panel

• Tools for producing and registering help volumes with hypertext capabilities

• Additional user interface objects (widgets) available for applications and specified in the CDE Style Guide

Notable Implementation Differences Between Toolkits

Many features are roughly equivalent in the OPEN LOOK user interface and Solaris Motif but have significant implementation differences. The following are the most important differences:

• Tear off Menus

• Input focus indicators

• Widget classes (sliders and gauges versus scales, for example)

• Secondary text selections

Other significant differences include the following:

• Keyboard bindings

• The window manager controls associated with each window

• Internalization

• Mouse button behavior

The remainder of this section provides information on some of these features.

Tear-off Menus

In Solaris Motif, tear-off menus replace the pinned menus of the OPEN LOOK user interface. Selecting the dashed line on the top of the menu "tears-off" the menu.

Secondary Text Selection

The OPEN LOOK secondary text selection is roughly analogous to the Motif quick transfer mechanism.

Window Controls

One of the most critical implementation differences involves window controls. When the Motif user presses the Window menu button in the upper left corner of the title bar, or the OPEN LOOK user presses the MENU button anywhere on the window background (including the header), a menu is displayed. The options offered under the two GUIs introduce a key contrast.

The Motif Window menu offers a choice of Restore, Move, Size, Minimize, Maximize, Lower, and Close. The OPEN LOOK base Window menu offers Close, Full Size, Properties, Back, Refresh, and Quit. The two lists are fundamentally the same, but have very different effects.

In the OPEN LOOK user interface, the Close option minimizes (iconifies) the window, and Quit terminates the application.

In Motif, the Minimize option minimizes the window, and the Close option terminates the application. Many users familiar with the OPEN LOOK user interface have found themselves exiting a Motif program when their intent was to close its window to an icon.

Mouse Button Behavior

The structure of the mouse buttons is very similar in both specifications; however, the difference is significant enough to cause some confusion.

Table 5-1 shows the default left-to-right mapping of the three OPEN LOOK mouse buttons.

Table 5-1 OPEN LOOK Mouse Buttons

BUTTON	Description
SELECT	Specifies an object or manipulates objects and controls, drag
ADJUST	Extends or reduces the number of selected objects
MENU	Displays a menu associated with the pointer location or  specified object

The three Motif mouse button assignments, described in Table 5-2 , also start by default with the left mouse button.

Table 5-2 Motif Mouse Buttons

Button	Description
BSelect	Selects, activates, and sets the location cursor, drag
BTransfer	Moves and copies elements, drag and drop transfer. Can be customized to be the OPEN LOOK Adjust button.
BMenu	Displays menus