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Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.answers,news.answers Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!uhog.mit.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!gatech!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!newsfeed.rice.edu!nb.rockwell.com!wade From: wade@nb.rockwell.com (Wade Guthrie) Subject: (FAQ) Portable GUI Development Kits, part 1/2 Message-ID: <PIGUI_FAQ1_765742186@nb.rockwell.com> Followup-To: comp.windows.misc Summary: This posting discusses many of the various platform-independent Graphical User Interface (GUI) development software libraries/ packages. Supersedes: <PIGUI_FAQ1_762455000@nb.rockwell.com> Reply-To: wade@nb.rockwell.com Organization: Rockwell International Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 18:09:50 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu Expires: Sat, 21 May 1994 18:09:46 GMT Lines: 683 Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu comp.windows.misc:2421 comp.answers:4809 news.answers:17789 Archive-name: portable-GUI-software/part1 Last-modified: Tue Apr 5 10:45:27 PDT 1994 Version: 1.8 ----------------------------------- Copyright 1993, Wade Guthrie. Permission is granted to copy and redistribute this document so long as it is unmodified (including the part that explains where to get the FAQ free-of-charge) and the copyright remains in-tact. I'd appreciate it if you told me about any redistribution, but that's not strictly necessary. ----------------------------------- 0. CONTENTS -- part 1 -- I. WHAT'S NEW IN THIS ISSUE II. INTRODUCTION III. ABOUT THE IEEE PIGUI STANDARD IV. USER-INTERFACE APPROACHES V. FEATURES AND SUPPORTED PLATFORMS -- part 2 -- VI. VENDOR REPORTS VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I. WHAT'S NEW IN THIS ISSUE. . . The FAQ has been reformatted a little with a better description of what a PIGUI is. Finally, there're the usual product updates as they become available. II. INTRODUCTION This posting is intended to shell-out as much information as I can find concerning platform-independent Graphical User Interface (PIGUI) development kits (actually, it's platform-independent APIs targeting various platform-DEPENDNET GUIs, but let's not get too picky). This list is being posted because I've seen a whole mess of requests for GUI portability information and, besides, I need this information as well. This document is maintained and periodically updated as a service to the net by Wade Guthrie (wade@nb.rockwell.com). Any corrections, updates, or other pertinent information are welcomed at that address. If you are a vendor of a PIGUI package (whether it's represented here or not), I encourage you to amend, annotate, and append to this document (and then, of course, send the revisions back to the author). IIa. Where to get this document. You can get the latest version of this FAQ (and, in fact, all the FAQs that appear in <whatever>.answers) *FREE-OF-CHARGE* by anonymous FTP from 'rtfm.mit.edu'. This FAQ can be found in the following directory: /pub/usenet/comp.windows.misc. There are several mail servers that will do the FTP for you if you do not have access to FTP directly. IIb. What's a PIGUI? A PIGUI toolkit is a software library that a programmer uses to produce GUI code for multiple computer systems. The toolkit presents an interface to the programmer (that's an API, son) in the form of function calls or objects which is independent of which GUI he's targeting. The toolkit does not necessarily provide any additional portability features. For example, programmer Petula Sniggly decides she wants to build the ultimate computer program. This thing is going to be so cool that everyone anywhere near a CPU will want to use it, so Petula targets her program for every type of computer on the planet. She considers getting herself a PIGUI toolkit to handle the GUI portion of her code. With a PIGUI toolkit, when she wants to put a menu on the screen, she calls the toolkit's "PIGUI_menu" function. When she compiles her code with the "Macintosh" flag set, the PIGUI library puts a Mac menu on the screen in response to the PIGUI_menu call. When she compiles her code with the "Motif" flag set, the call causes the library to put-up a Motif-style menu. All this happens (theoretically) without Petula having to change her source code. If she is careful to make her non-GUI code portable, she would have a single program (with a single source) that works on multiple platforms. There is no free lunch, so our heroine Petula has a few things to consider before deciding whether to use a PIGUI. First, most (and maybe 'all' depending on whom you believe) of the PIGUIs will slow the execution of your code. You are also limited to the feature set provided by the PIGUI unless you want to code around the toolkit (but, then again, why would you buy the PIGUI in the first place if you're going to code around it?). Bugs in any toolset (PIGUI or otherwise) filter down to your production code. Fewer people know how to code any specific PIGUI than do a platform-specific GUI (e.g., MS-Windows), so wizardly help will be limited. The PIGUI only deals with the GUI aspects of your program -- you're on your own for other portability issues. Finally, if the vendor goes out of business you may be out-of-luck for support of future OS enhancements (source code can ease, but not eliminate, the pain of a vendor closing its doors). IIc. A word about language choice. Many C programmers will look at the purchase of a PIGUI library as a great opportunity to migrate to C++. If the library takes full advantage of C++, the programmer will have to use C++ methodologies (not just a C++ compiler with C syntax) to use it. When one ports a C program to such a library, one should expect to invest a *significant* amount of effort learning about (and modifying his code to take advantage of) classes, inheritance, and constructors in order to complete the port. Of course, if one wants his C code to become C++ code, this is a necessary exercise anyway. IId. What else is in this Document? After the introductory stuff, you'll find some more detailed information about PIGUIs in general followed by tables and prose that describe specific PIGUI toolkits. The limits placed on which products are discussed in this posting are pretty-much provided in the title. The products listed here must be platform-independent and support at least two different OSs. The product must be shipping to the general public (i.e., no beta-only or pre-beta PIGUIs). Moreover, these packages focus on GUI portability, though some provide a larger breadth of portability features (and, I've tried to list those, where applicable). No limits (at either the high or the low end) have been placed on price, even though the prices in the field vary by more than an order of magnitude (and, now, there are some free PIGUI kits). Note that in addition to one of the products listed here, you'll need (natch) one of the supported host machines, a compiler or interpreter of the appropriate type, and, for layered GUI packages (q.v.), the basic GUI builder for that platform. IIe. More Legal Barf. At this point, I find it necessary (even though this is covered by my .sig) to say that this FAQ is my personal work and that this FAQ does *IN NO WAY* indicate, reveal, imply, infer, allude to, display, suggest, symbolize, expose, demonstrate, hint at, or in any way have anything to do with the thoughts, policies, suggestions, reflections, decisions, theories, sentiments, ponderings, rules, dreams, or beliefs of my employer. I use a lot of names that are trademarks in this FAQ. At no time should the use of a trademarked name be construed as contesting the trademark. Those trademarks belong to their respective trademark holders. If lots of stuff in this posting looks familiar to you, you're not hallucinating (well, maybe you are, but not regarding this). Much of the format (and some of the words) of this FAQ have been lifted (with permission -- thanks Eric) from Eric Raymond's PC-UNIX FAQ. IIf. Glossary. Here are some words that you'll find in this FAQ along with working definitions for them. API Applications Programming Interface. This is what the programmer sees when he's using a software development kit. Normally, this would be a set of function calls and/or objects. CDE The GUI part of COSE (q.v.) is CDE, the Common Desktop Environment. COSE Common Open Software Environment. This is the industry-agreed- upon look-and-feel that will replace Motif and OpenLook. It's basically Motif with some add-ons. CUI Character User Interface. This is like a graphical user interface, but it's implemented only with characters (e.g., ASCII). Many Platform-Independent CUIs are developed using the public-domain curses package. DDE Dynamic Data Exchange. This is a method of inter-process communication under Microsoft Windows. DDEML Microsoft Windows' Dynamic Data Exchange Management Library. DLL Dynamically Linked Libraries. These are, essentially, shared libraries under Microsoft Windows. FAQ Frequently Asked Questions. A list. . .like THIS one! font A specific set of shapes for a character set. Old English is one example of a font (it's more complicated than that, but I'm not going into it here). GDI Microsoft Windows' Graphical Drawing Interface. GUI Graphical User Interface. If you don't know what this is already, you have quite a bit of homework before this FAQ will mean anything to you. IPC Inter-process Communication. It's a generic term for the way separate processes (or tasks) under an operating system talk to each other. MDI Microsoft Windows' Multiple Document Interface. An MDI parent window is intended to be the main window of an application and MDI child windows represent separate documents or sessions (or whatever) under that application. Motif This is one of the choices of look-and-feel under the X Window system. In order to have one's software certified as Motif compliant, one must pay a fee to the Open Software Foundation (OSF). OpenLook This is one of the choices of look-and-feel under the X Window system. It was originally championed by Sun Microsystems before they agreed to support COSE (q.v.). PCL Hewlett Packard's Printer Control Language. It's a language for getting HP printers to display what you want. PIGUI Platform-Independent Graphical User Interface. Actually, it refers to a platform-independent API (q.v.). PM OS/2's Presentation Manager. This is the GUI under OS/2. PostScript This is a printer language owned by Adobe Systems. It's an interpreted language that is used by a wide variety of printers. SDK Software Development Kit. It's software to help a programmer build other software. Unicode This is an international (16-bits per character) character set in which all the characters from the various supported international languages co-exist at once. Among the supported character sets is the English alphabet (is there a more proper term?), Hebrew, and kanji. WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get (pronounced Wizzy-Wig). It's a way of allowing the user of a package to see the package's output (in its ultimate format) while the user is developing using that package. Most WYSIWYG software is really WYSISWYG (pronounced Wizzy-Swig) -- What you see is sort-of what you get. Xlib This is the library of X-Windows functions distributed by MIT with the X Window system (hence, it's free -- just like X Windows). One can generate software that is compliant to the OpenLook or Motif look-and-feel (or any other, for that matter) using Xlib. YMMV Your Mileage May Vary. III. ABOUT THE IEEE PIGUI STANDARD Okay, so they don't call it a PIGUI. Scott Preece (preece@predator.urbana.mcd.mot.COM) is maintaining a FAQ (and posting it to comp.windows.x) regarding IEEE P1201.1, a draft standard for multi-GUI APIs. A synopsis of all this (some of which is stolen verbatim from Scott's FAQ) is below. If you want to know more about it, check-out the FAQ or contact Scott. The following was extracted from various pieces of that FAQ. "IEEE working group P1201.1 is writing a standard for a multi-GUI API, an API that would be implementable on top of a wide range of GUI bases. The API must be independent of the look and feel of the delivered interface, yet must support a wide range of interface functionality. "The group has focused its work on developing a programming language independent model of GUI programming, on which language specific bindings will be based. The model abstracts core elements of the computational model of several existing multi-GUI toolkits [...] expressed in an object-based computational model. [...the objects defined in the standard] do not correspond to the specific programming elements of any one GUI, but can be mapped onto the programming elements of any of the target GUIs. [...] several participants also agreed to sketch language bindings for several different languages, including C, C++, and Ada. "If resources continue to be available, we hope to be able to do a mock ballot this Summer and a formal ballot early in 1995. [...] The current public draft of P1201.1 is Draft 7, dated March 1993." IV. USER-INTERFACE APPROACHES Most, if not all, of the products in this FAQ take one of three approaches to providing platform independence. The two most common approaches are the "layered" and the "emulated" user interface but an up-and-coming approach is "API emulated" interface. Products using a layered interface access native, third party, GUI-building toolkits to provide the look-and-feel compliance for each particular GUI. Layered user interfaces have the advantage that, since they depend on other products which concentrate on a single GUI, they have to provide less software (and, hence, are usually less expensive) than emulated interfaces. Layered interfaces are also more likely to get the native look-and-feel correct on all platforms. Most of the PIGUI products in this FAQ fit in this category. In an emulated user interface, the PIGUI's resultant code produces low-level calls and all the look-and-feel compliance is handled by the PIGUI software itself (e.g., for OpenWindows support, the software would *NOT* produce an XView program that must be compiled with the XView toolkit; the software would produce code that interfaces directly with X intrinsics). To provide an emulated user interface, a vendor has to develop a lot of extra code for look-and-feel support. Emulated user interfaces have the advantage that someone on a Motif workstation, for example, can see how the Macintosh-style UI will look (since the look-and-feel is part of the product). Emulated interfaces have the opportunity to provide a faster GUI than does a layered interface; in addition, it does not require you to purchase (or learn how to use) other kits to build GUI software. A third approach to platform independence is emulating one of the supported target's APIs (usually, the Microsoft Windows API) to target other GUIs. With one of these products, one would program using the emulated API and the code would be (to the extent to which that the product provides portability) portable to other GUIs. V. FEATURES AND SUPPORTED PLATFORMS The products in this FAQ are pretty similar in their basic functionality; they each provide function calls or classes that allow the user to build windows, buttons (regular as well as radio buttons and check boxes), menus, menu bars, and the like. Areas of contention seem to be things such as: - availability and price of source code, - printer support, - support for international character sets, - capability to support draw-package-like features, - bitmap (and icon) support, - whether the product has a WYSIWYG GUI builder (most do), implementation language, and - the approach to platform independence (see below). Of course, each user will have his own requirements; YMMV. Now, on to the comparisons. To interpret the tables below, bear in mind the following things: - If information for a cell is unknown, a period ('.') is placed there. It is the ultimate goal of the author to eliminate all of these. - If a PIGUI package does not support a feature or platform in the table, the cell is marked with a hyphen ('-'). - If a feature or platform is not currently supported, but that support is planned, the cell is marked with ('soon'). Support in the form of beta versions (as well as longer- lead versions) fit in this category. - If a price is known for a product, that price is inserted in the appropriate cell of the table. If that price is not known (but the feature is supported), the cell is marked with 'yes' -- it is hoped that all 'yes' entries will be replaced with prices "Real Soon Now". Note that prices in this FAQ are the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price). The street price for some of these products can be *significantly* less. - Tables are annotated, where appropriate, with letters (in parenthesis where it doesn't take-up too much room). The appropriate notes are found below the table. Also note that as information changes, some of the notes will disappear. The note letters will not necessarily be in sequence -- get used to it. Another note: given that Sun Microsystems has announced its abandonment of OpenLook in favor of COSE, I'm not sure I'd hold my breath for the OpenLook betas in the tables below. It may just not be worth it for some of the vendors to support a product that has limited (at best) application. The following abbreviations are used throughout this document when there wasn't room for the complete name. App AppWare, Novell Aspect Aspect, Open Inc. Views C++/Views, Liant CLIM Common Lisp Interface Manager, several vendors CommonV Glockenspiel CommonView, Computer Associates Galaxy Galaxy, Visix Guild Guild, Guild JAM JAM, JYACC. libWxm libWxm, Visual Solutions MAINWin MAINWin/Cross-Development Kit, MAINSoft Corporation Menuet Menuet/CPP, Autumn Hill Software, Inc. MEWEL MEWEL UIL, Magma Systems ObViews ObjectViews C++, Quest Windows Corporation OI Open Interface, Neuron Data Opus Opus, WNDX OpenUI OpenUI, Open Software Associates PSM Presentation Services Manager, Lancorp Pty Ltd. StarVie StarView, StarDivision SUIT Simple User Interface Toolkit, University of Virginia VisWork VisualWorks, ParcPlace Wind/U Wind/U, Bristol Technology wxWind wxWindows, Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute XVT XVT Portability Toolkit, XVT Software Inc. zApp zApp, Inmark Zinc Zinc, Zinc Table 1: PLATFORM VS. PRICE (US$ except where noted) Open- Next- Vendor ASCII DOS Win(s) Win/NT OS/2 Motif Look Mac PenOS Step ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- App(d) . soon yes soon soon yes - yes - . Aspect yes yes 1495 . . 2495 yes 1495 . . Views - soon 749 soon 995 1999 - yes . . CLIM . . . . . yes yes soon . . CommonV . . yes . yes yes soon soon . . Galaxy - - 7800 soon 9600 (m) (m) 9600 - . Guild - - 895 895 895 soon - 895 - . JAM yes yes yes . . yes yes . . . libWxm - - (h) (h) (v) yes - (v) - . MAINWin - - (h) (h) (v) 5000 - (v) - . Menuet - 499 599 - 599 999 - . yes . MEWEL 1595 395u (h) (h) 795 - - (v) - . ObViews - - yes yes . yes - yes - . OI yes yes 5800 6850 6850 9850 9850 4800 . . Opus . 695 695 . soon 695 695 695 . . OpenUI yes - 3500 soon 4900 7900g - 3500 (w) . PSM . . yes . . yes . soon . . StarVie - - 499 soon 495 soon soon soon . . SUIT . (k) (k) . . (k) (k) (k) . . VisWork . . 2995 . 2995 4995 4995 2995 . . Wind/U - - (h) (h) (v) yes - (v) - . wxWind soon - free soon - free free - - . XVT(c) 4400a 1450 1450 4400ab 1450 4400a 4400 1450 . . zApp - 495 495 495 695 soon - soon - . Zinc(e) 1499e 299e 299(f) 299(f) 299e 1499 - 299ej 299 . ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vendor ASCII DOS Win(s) Win/NT OS/2 Motif Open- Mac PenOS Next- Look Step (a) This is the price for platforms other than x86-based computers. For x86-based machines (under DOS/UNIX/Xenix -- where applicable), the price is $1450. (b) For non-x86 platforms, check for availability -- Alpha and MIPS supported. (c) C++ is $200 extra. Interactive design tool is $1200 extra ($2900 for non x86-based X-windows). (d) Novell're currently determining pricing information -- they use the term 'negotiated'. (e) Zinc requires a single-time purchase of the Zinc GUI engine. This is $499. After this price, the individual GUIs to be supported are added-on. (f) Win16, Win32s, and Win32 are packaged together. (g) for a PC-based Unix, we're talking $5850. (h) This product uses the MS Windows API; so, in that sense, it supports MS Windows. (j) Pre-release. (k) SUIT is free if you are a University or non-profit organization. If you make a profit, you have to pay around $25,000 for a site license. (m) The price is per machine. For $9600, you get Motif, OpenLook, CUA, and Microsoft Windows on a single machine. (s) That's Microsoft Windows (TM). (u) Price does not include source code (the other MEWEL products do). (v) Microsoft Wings (scheduled to ship in the first half of 1994) can be used to port Windows API to Macintosh System 7. Micrografx's Mirrors can be used to port Windows source to OS/2. (w) Does work on PenOS systems, but does not *yet* have Pen extensions. (x) That's OpenLook. (y) That's NextStep. What we're looking at is two groups of products. The lower-priced group is usually C++, is a more recent introduction to the market, is almost always a layered GUI, and concentrates on PC-based operating systems. Products from the higher-priced group usually offer a more stable platform with both greater breadth and depth than does the previous group. In either case, the cost premium for UNIX support is usually a factor of 3 -- that is, the GUI package for a UNIX platform for any PIGUI product is usually 3 times as expensive as the version for DOS/MS-Windows. Other "personal" operating systems (e.g. OS/2 and the Mac) vary as to whether they follow the UNIX pricing or the PC pricing. These are merely observations, your mileage may vary. Table 2: FEATURES AND OTHER NIFTIES Vendor Type(p) Eval(a) Source Royalty Language Builder(g) ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- AppWare . . . no . (m) Aspect . 30 (e) no C yes Views layered (c) free no C++ yes CLIM . (u) . . Cmn Lisp (u) CommonV layered . yes no C++ . Galaxy emulate (d) (e) no C/C++ yes Guild . . (f) no C yes JAM layered . yes no C yes libWxm API emu . . . . . MAINWin API emu 30 no (w) C/C++ (t) . . . . . MEWEL API emu . (r) no C(s) (t) ObViews layered . . no C++ . OI emulate (x) . no C/C++ yes Opus emulate . . no . . OpenUI layered (q) (e,b) no C(h) yes PSM . . . yes . no StarVie layered 30 yes no C++ yes SUIT . free free . C . VisWork emulate (c) 100000 yes SmalTalk yes Wind/U API emu (v) (f) no C/C++ (t) wxWind . - free no C++ (n) XVT layered . yes no C(j) $1200(k) zApp layered 60 free no C++ $499 Zinc layered 60 free no C++ yes ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vendor Type(p) Eval(a) Source Royalty Language Builder(g) (a) This is the number of days that the product can be evaluated. Inside this time, the software can be returned for full money back. (b) Open Software Associates is willing to make a deal for source on a case-by-case basis. (c) They offer a 30 day 'test drive' evaluation. This costs between $100 and $50 (applicable toward cost of product). (d) Give them a P.O. They'll give it back if you don't like the product. Not sure what the pricing is. They also require a 1 week, $2500 course they require you to take to get an evaluation. (e) Source code is held in an escrow account. You can't get to it unless the company goes belly-up. This helps you protect your investment -- if the company goes belly-up, you can do the software maintenance yourself. (f) You can buy it, or you can get an escrow account. (g) This is a WYSIWYG GUI Builder. (h) Pascal, Cobol, and ADA are supported, too, but there wasn't room. (j) $200 for C++ wrappers. (k) $2900 for non-PC. (m) They've reconfigured AppMaker (for the Mac) and AppStudio (MS Windows) to be GUI builders. (n) Uses SunOS's DevGuide. (p) Type means 'emulated', 'layered', or 'API emulated'. This describes how the product approaches support for various GUIs. (q) They charge (about $500) for a 90 day (money applicable to purchase) evaluation period. Included is a 1-day training course and phone and fax support. (r) ASCII and OS/2 versions come with source for free. The DOS version is an additional $400 with source. (s) You can program in the MS Windows API or use MFC, OWL, or C++/Views. (t) Any MS Windows Application Builder will work. (u) Different LISP vendors support CLIM -- each provides a different set of options and pricing structures. (v) A 30 day evaluation costs $250. (w) MAINWin kind-of charges royalties. Every machine on which an application developed with MAINWin is to be run needs the a license for the shared libraries. The cost runs between $195 (quantity 1) and $156 (quantity 100) per machine. (x) These guys have a 'flexible evaluation structure'. The following table makes the most sense for operating systems that work on various types of hardware (e.g., UNIX, Windows NT) rather than for OSs dedicated to a certain type of hardware (e.g., DOS, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh). A `y' indicates that support has been verified by a user report. A `c' indicates that the hardware/OS is claimed to work in vendor literature. An `e' indicates that this is the API emulated by the software. A `b' indicates that the hardware/OS is in beta. A `p' indicates that the hardware/OS is planned, but not yet in beta. A `.' indicates that whether this combination works is unknown. A `-' indicates that the vendor doesn't support that hardware. A `*' points you at footnote info. Table 3: HARDWARE VENDORs SUPPORTED A C M O S V p A o G L M A O p O t i W w p s V m a G i e I M b e p a s i x W p i C m l u b n N E V n e r S W W n W z Z a e e L o e i J w u W W i I n P V U o N d i X A i r c w I n x l A x e i E e n U S i I r D / n V p n e t s M V y d M m t n L w t I M e T k X U d T p c Systems ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- p c - . . - . . . . - c - . - . - c . . . - . c y DOS Graphics - c p . . - . . . . - c - . - . - . . c . - . c c DOS Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . y c 16-bit DOS Extender . . . . . . . . . c . c . . - . . . . . . . . - c 32-bit DOS Extender - c - . . - . . . . - c - . y . - . . . . p y . c ASCII Text c c y . c y c . e c e e c c y c c c c c e c c c y MS-Windows 3.x 16-bit c c b . b c c . . . - - c c y b c c c c . - c b b Macintosh . . . . . . . . . . - . . . p . b . . . . . . . p Macintosh PowerPC p . c . c c c . . c - c - c y c c . c b . - c c c OS/2 p . p . . y c . . . c p c c b . c . . . . b c c c 80x86 / Windows NT p . p . . b . . . . c p . c - . c . . . . - c . p Alpha / Windows NT p . - . . b . . . . c p . . - . p . . . . - c . . MIPS / Windows NT - c - . b y . . . . - - . c - . c c c c . c c . - SunOS / OpenLook c c c . . y b . c . c - . . c . c c . . y c c y c SunOS / Motif c . - . . y . . . . p - . c c . p . c . . c . . . ULTRIX / Motif p c - . . . . . . . p - . . c . - . . . . c y . . ISC / Motif p c c . . . . . . . p - . c c c p . . . . c c y c SCO Unix/Xenix / Motif p c - . . c . . c . p - . c - . p . . . p c c . . MIPS / Motif c c c . . y . . c . c - . c c . p c c . y c c y c HP 9000 / Motif p c p . . y . . c . c - . c c . c c c . y c c y c IBM RS-6000 / Motif p c p . . y . . . . p - . c c . p . . . p . c . p Vax VMS p c - . . c . . c . c - . c - . p c . . y y c c c Silicon Graphics - . - . . . . . . . - - . . - c - . . . . . . . . Pyramid Table 4: SUPPORT FEATURES With 800 FTP Read Support Vendor sale number? BBS? Compuserv? server? USENET? Other contracts ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- AppWare yes soon no yes yes yes (b) TBD Aspect ? ? . . . . . $200-$800/yr Views 60d no yes no no yes . $250-$500/yr CLIM (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c) CommonV (a) ? . . . . . - Galaxy none yes no no yes yes (k) $1,995/yr Guild 90d ? . . . . . $100/month JAM . ? . . . . . . libWxm . ? . . . . . . MAINWin 1 year yes . . yes . . $1000/yr(e) Menuet . ? . . . . . . MEWEL yes no yes yes yes yes . $250/yr ObViews . ? . . . . . yes OI . ? yes . . yes . $1200-$2400/yr Opus . ? . . . . . - OpenUI 90d no soon no soon yes (h) 12%-30%/yr PSM . ? . . . . . - StarVie . yes yes yes no yes . - SUIT . no . . yes . (d) - VisWork (f) yes yes yes (g) . . $675/yr Wind/U . no no no yes yes . 12%-20%/yr wxWind . no no no . yes . - XVT 1 year ? yes yes yes . . (call) zApp forever no yes yes no yes . - Zinc forever no yes yes yes yes . $499/yr(j) ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vendor With 800 BBS? Compuserv? FTP Read Other Support sale number? server? USENET? contracts (a) CommonView provides free maintenance for MS-Windows and OS/2. 15% of cost is required for Motif, however. iling list (appware-info-request@serius.uchicago.edu for more info). (c) CLIM is a multi-vendor product. See the individual vendor for information. (d) There is a SUIT mailing list. Send email to 'suit-users-request@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU' for mor information. (e) That's for one person. The second person is $700, and subsequent users are at $500. (f) Installation and temporary evaluation help plus one free general support question. (g) Gopher service. (h) Support (including distribution) by e-mail. (j) This is for their higher-end support. Simple support still comes for free. (k) They support an email mailing list (I've heard it's quite active). -- Wade Guthrie | "They couldn't hit an *elephant* at this wade@nb.rockwell.com | dis...", last words of Mjr. Gen. (?) I don't speak for Rockwell. | Sedgewick, American Civil War.