Internet Info 1993/Internet Info CD-ROM (Walnut Creek) (1993).iso/answers/comp/portable-GUI-software/part2

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From: [e-mail] (Wade Guthrie)
Subject: (FAQ) Portable GUI Development Kits, part 2/2
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Followup-To: comp.windows.misc
Summary: This posting discusses many of the various platform-independent
    Graphical User Interface (GUI) development software libraries/
    packages.
Supersedes: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Rockwell International
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 18:09:55 GMT
Approved: [e-mail]
Expires: Sat, 21 May 1994 18:09:46 GMT
Lines: 1149
Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu comp.windows.misc:2422 comp.answers:4810 news.answers:17790

Archive-name: portable-GUI-software/part2
Last-modified: Wed Mar  2 13:52:30 PST 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


VI. VENDOR REPORTS
    Vendor reports start here.  Each one is led by a form feed.


NAME:
    AppWare Foundation

VENDOR:
    Novell
    1601 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd
    Cupertino, CA 95014

    [phone] (inquiries)
    [phone] (voice)

    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    AppWare is a product line which includes 'Visual AppBuilder',
    'AppWare Loadable Modules(ALM) SDK', and 'AppWare Foundation'.  The
    product in this FAQ is AppWare Foundation (if you contact Novell,
    please indicate the full name).

    The AppWare Foundation software consists of dynamic and static
    'C' language libraries.  Novell has reconfigured AppMaker and
    AppStudio to act as GUI builders for AppWare Foundation.  They
    provide international support through Unicode (an international
    character set), native localization, and international versions of
    the standard I/O library and memory allocation.  Full key-code
    information is available to the application as well.

    Novell is particularly proud of their extensive graphics
    library (which includes support for rotated fonts, scaling,
    colormaps, printing, coordinate-transform matrices, and
    off-screen drawing in addition to multiple screen and multiple
    display drawing).

    In addition to GUI portability, network support is provided for
    a variety of protocols; and, they have given the user the
    ability to access shared libraries (and the functions within
    them) explicitly by name (note that you only need the path to
    the library -- it doesn't have to be linked with the
    executable).

COMMENTS:
    This software started-out life as STI's Universal Component
    System.

FUTURE PLANS:
    C++ and Cobol support are currently being implemented.


NAME:
    Aspect, V1.2

VENDOR:
    OPEN Inc.
    655 Southpointe Court, Suite 200
    Colorado Springs, CO 80906

    [phone] (sales, customer service, tech support)
    [phone] (fax)

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a C library, though they're type safe for C++
    compatibility.  A GUI builder is provided with the library.
    Note that this product does not generate code, it's just a
    resource editor (that is being rectified in the next
    release, however).

COMMENTS:
    Aspect is missing a help system and error handling support.

FUTURE PLANS:
    They're coming out with a code generator (hurray!), icon
    and image support, and a C++ class library soon.


NAME:
    C++/Views, V3.0

VENDOR:
    Liant Software Corp.
    959 Concord St.,
    Framingham, MA 01701 USA

    [phone] (sales)
    [phone] (inquiries)
    [phone] (support)

    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a C++ library based on the smalltalk model (all classes
    come from one superclass, and they have a smalltalk-like class
    browser).  Version 3 now has a WYSIWYG GUI builder called C++/
    Views Constructor.

    Additional features include printer, graphics, event, string, and
    various container classes as well as some higher-level classes
    (e.g., VTableView and VToolBar).  Version 3 also handles geometry
    management so you can place objects based on relative coordinates.

SUPPORT:
    60 days free.  After that, $250/year for Microsoft Windows and
    OS/2; $500/yr with free upgrades.  $500/yr for Motif; $1000/year
    with free upgrades.

COMMENTS:
    Liant seems to be listening to what their customers have to say.
    Many of the previous negative comments in this FAQ have been
    addressed by Liant in their latest release (and this has been
    substantiated by user comments).  The people at Liant have also
    been extremely helpful with putting together this FAQ.

FUTURE PLANS:
    Liant has a Mac version, but the price is as yet undetermined.
    They have DOS and Unix character versions which, I'm told, will
    be in beta very soon.

    They're also working on portable, on-line help, multi-byte character
    support, C++ code generation from their builder (as opposed to
    generation of a resource file), and compatibility with ODBMSs.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    They use a smalltalk model -- if you like smalltalk, great; if not,
    you may have some trouble.  They have a browser/editor -- it's
    simple to add a new message but it's reportedly kind-of clumsy to
    use.  You may want to use a different environment like Borland's
    IDE under Microsoft Windows.

    US technical support has improved (and is continuing to improve),
    from what I've heard, but overseas users must go through their
    local technical support personnel (some of which are less than
    stellar).

    Says one user, "They have put const in many of the most important
    places although they still have places where it should have been
    used." [Normally, I wouldn't put such a bland statement in the
    FAQ, but it addresses a very negative comment that was here
    earlier and it seems to be something that few of the other vendors
    are doing -- WDG].

NAME:
    Common Lisp Interface Manager, V2.0

VENDOR:
    Well, this gets kind-of complicated.  It was started by a company
    called 'Internation Lisp Associates', or ILA, but was adopted by
    several Lisp vendors.  The five active CLIM parters are:

    Symbolics (these guys are the primary coordinators of the project)
    Concord, MA

    Lucid, Menlo Park, CA
    [e-mail]

    Franz, Berkeley, CA

    Harlelquin

    Illudium
    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    CLIM is a de-facto extension to the Common Lisp language.  It
    supports standard shape-drawing primitives with a portable color
    model.  Full 2D affine transforms are supported.  In addition, a
    platform-independent font specification mechanism is included.

    CLIM operates through a back-end for each underlying GUI.  Back-end
    efforts exist for Motif (which is shipping), OpenLook, and the
    Macintosh.  I don't think that there is a Windows back-end yet.
    CLIM can also run in a CLIM-look-and-feel mode as a fallback.

    For additional information, see the comp.lang.lisp FAQ, part 7.


NAME:
    CommonView Glockenspiel

VENDOR:
    Computer Associates International
    One CA Plaza
    Islandia, NY 11788-7000

    (516) DIAL CAI (voice)
    (516) DIAL FAX (you guessed it, fax)

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a C++ library.

    In addition, it comes with container classes.  The down-side is
    that some of the features are not supported across all platforms.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    One user says, "[we] Tried this first on MS_Windows, and were
    reasonably impressed, but the X-Windows version was so buggy and
    ill-conceived, it didn't last more than two weeks here.  They may
    have fixed it all by now [...].  Support was very poor. Great
    concepts, but very poor implementation."

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
    Computer Associates seems to have a strong big-company attitude.
    I've had to weave through a lot of twisty little passages (turning
    at every "that's not my job and I don't know whose it is") to try
    to find someone who was willing to help put together this FAQ (I
    haven't yet).  I hope that their support is better when they
    already have your money in their pocket.


NAME:
    Galaxy, V1.2

VENDOR:
    Visix
    11440 Commerce Park Drive
    Reston, Virginia 22091

    [phone] (inquiries)
    [phone] (voice)

    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    There are C++ and C versions of this library.  The package includes
    a WYSIWYG GUI builder.

    The tools are, reportedly, pretty full-featured.  User-interface
    items have extensive abstraction (for example, they have a
    confirmation-type dialog that resolves to a push-pin and 'apply'
    button under OpenLook, but 'ok', 'apply', 'cancel' buttons under
    motif).  Objects can be positioned relative to each other (rather
    than merely by absolute position on the screen).  Also, errors are
    handled with an abstract exception handling framework.  They
    support internationalization of fonts (at least Japanese), money,
    and data formatting.

    Some extra-cool features include memory leak detection and
    C-language objects for text (multi-styled, multi-font text with
    embedded graphics), list (spreadsheet-like for handling up to 2^31
    x 2^31 cells with customizable displays), and graphics processing.

    In addition to a GUI portability platform, Galaxy also includes
    inter-process communication (IPC), extensive filesystem, and sound
    support portability across platforms.

SUPPORT:
    You get no support when you buy the product.  If you buy the
    support, it includes product updates and phone access to their
    developers.  According to one of Galaxy's developers "not buying
    support is really a false economy".

COMMENTS:
    These guys have implemented a full superset approach to their API.
    Often, their objects are more capable than the native-mode object
    would if you had not used their code.  Like Neuron data, they're
    an emulated API (they don't layer on-top of other tools); they
    compile, for example, down to Xlib under Motif or OpenLook.
    And like XVT, Visix is a major contributor to the IEEE P1201.1
    standard.

    This software won Unix Review's Outstanding Product Award (1993)
    for Software Development Front-Ends.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    One user says, "If you are looking at cross-platform development
    environments, you absolutely MUST take a look at Galaxy, from Visix
    Software.  Very good interface builder, covers ALL layers of the
    API, from GUI to networking, very well designed API, C++ version,
    etc. [...] We have had good results with it so far."  Another user
    agrees, "I've been using their software for almost 2 years now
    and I love it", adding, "I lead a project that had > 80K lines of
    C / C++ that had less than 100 lines defferent between the SunOS
    and MS-Windows versions."

    But others chide them for their 1 week class requirement for an
    evaluation copy, "I looked at Galaxy. It seems to be a nice
    package, but [...] If you want to give it a try, you MUST take
    their 1 week class for about $1800.00 and what manager is going to
    allocate funds", "... and time [...] This required one week trip to
    Visix class was probably the reason we ended up with another
    package."  Word has it that Visix is dropping this policy.


REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
    These guys have been extremely helpful getting their portion of
    this FAQ going.  I think that this could be indicative of seriously
    superlative support (that's an awful lot of alliteration).


NAME:
    Guild

VENDOR:
    Guild
    1710 S. Amphlett
    2nd Fl.
    San Mateo, California 94402

    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a C-language library, but they're type-safe for C++
    compatibility.  The package includes a GUI builder and an event
    occurrence monitor.

    Additional features in the library includes support for
    international character sets, portable file system support and
    nifty C-language classes for pie-charts, 3d bars, x-y plots, and
    the like.

OPTIONS:
    Graphic Modeling        $995
    Oracle Database Bridge  $395
    ODBC Database Access    $495

SUPPORT:
    Three month free phone tech support.  After that, its $100 per
    month or $1000 per year (the latter including free upgrades).

FUTURE PLANS:
    They're working on a Unix/Motif version.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    Problems include "no file, printing or memory management support",
    according to Richard Chimera ([e-mail]).


NAME:
    JAM/Pi 5.03 (6.0, reportedly, is on the way)

VENDOR:
    JYACC, Inc.
    New York, New York

    [phone] (voice)

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a C-language library.  The package includes a GUI builder.

OPTIONS:
    JAM/DBi     Database Interface
    JAM/Rw      Report Writer

FUTURE PLANS:
    Version 6.0 is due out soon.  This is supposed to be quiet a bit
    better in the GUI arena than they've done in the past.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    One user says "We have been using JAM 5.03 [...] and am not
    entirely happy with it. [...] no scrollbars in the CUI version, no
    buttons [...] The CUI does not follow any accepted style (like
    Motif or MS Windows)"


NAME:
    libWxm

VENDOR:
    Visual Solutions
    487 Groton Road
    Westford, MA 01886

    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)

    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    libWxm emulates the MS Windows (win32/s) API.  They support dialogs,
    resources, bitmaps, child windows and controls, custom controls,
    fonts, and GDI commands.

FUTURE PLANS:
    MDI support, postscript printing, and DDE support.


NAME:
    MAINWin/CDK v1.0

VENDOR:
    MAINSoft Corporation
    883 North Shoreline Blvd., Suite C-100
    Mountain View, CA 94043

    (800) MAIN-WIN (inquiries)
    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)

    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    MAINWin is a portable implementation (to any system offering POSIX
    compliance and Xlib) of the MS Windows API on Unix/X-Windows.  The
    software's output runs directly on Xlib, and does not require Motif
    software.  MAINWin allows the user to switch look-and-feel (between
    MS-Windows and Motif) from the system menu at run-time.  In order
    to run a MAINWin application on a Unix workstation, users need a
    copy of the "MAINWin for Workstations" product for each machine on
    which the code runs.

    MAINWin offers porting tools for MS Windows resources, the MS
    Windows hypertext help system (which uses the original rtf-format
    help files), shared libraries (DLLs), fonts, postscript printing,
    dynamic data exchange (DDE), and MS Windows Device Context APIs.
    Also included in this code is support for the Microsoft MFC 2.0
    class library.  Finally, MAINWin includes their DDR technology to
    provide PC-compatible file structures across all systems.

    Documentation for with MAINWin includes the "MAINWin Cross-
    Development Guide", the "MAINWin API Function Call Status" document
    and the "MAINWin API Message and Control Status" document.

    MAINWin's optional developer program includes a weekly status of
    issues reported to MAINSoft.

FUTURE PLANS:
    MAINSoft plans to support OLE/OLE2, DDEML, and the Win32 API.  They
    also plan to provide the MAINWin/Device Driver Kit.


NAME:
    Menuet/CPP

VENDOR:
    Autumn Hill Software, Inc.
    1145 Ithaca Drive
    Boulder, Co. 80303

    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    Menuet/CPP is a C++ product (they also have a vanilla 'C' product).
    They have a product called an Application Generator -- anyone know
    what this is?


NAME:
    MEWEL User Interface Library, Version 4.0

VENDOR:
    Magma Systems
    15 Bodwell Terrace
    Millburn, NJ 07041

    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)
    [phone] (BBS, 9600-1200, N-8-1)

    [e-mail] (Magma has a vendor support conference on CIS)
    [e-mail]  (Magma has a vendor support conference on BIX)

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    MEWEL is a portable implementation of the MS Windows API.  It is a
    C library, but is type-safe for C++.  You can program your
    applications in C, or can use Microsoft's MFC, Borland's OWL,
    Liant's C++/Views, and wxWindows.  In addition, a "lite" version of
    MEWEL is distributed with the DOS text and DOS graphics versions of
    zApp.  Their product has also been ported to Gnu C++ (DJGPP) on the
    PC.

FUTURE PLANS:
    "We are working on a version for MFC/NT [Microsoft Foundation
    Classes/Windows NT] using Pharlap TNT extender, but it's not ready
    yet."  One nifty ramification of this is that one will be able to
    use MEWEL and the Pharlap DOS extender in order to port Windows NT
    applications to DOS.


NAME:
    Open Interface Elements, Version 3.0

VENDOR:
    Neuron Data
    156 University Avenue,
    Palo Alto, California 94301

    [phone] (inquiries)
    [phone] (voice)

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    Open Interface is an emulated PIGUI with a C++ API (as of Open
    Interface Elements 3.0).  The software also comes with a WYSIWYG
    GUI builder which includes a script language that can co-exist with
    C or C++.

    They include tons of extra widgets (which they call "Power
    Widgets") like business graphics (bar, pie, and line charts),
    images (all standard formats), a hypertext widget, and
    context-sensitive hypertext help.

    Other software in Open Interface includes international character
    support, portable drag-and-drop, multi-font support, full printer
    support, memory management, file I/O support as well as MS-Windows
    DDE support (the latter is, of course, non-portable).

OPTIONS:
    "Nexpertobject" is an expert systems tool intended for GUI
    development.

    "C/S Elements" is a client/server for object-oriented and
    relational data bases

    "Smart Elements" is for deploying "smarter" client/server
    applications (whatever that means).  It may be (the literature was
    fuzzy) a superset of C/S Elements and Nexpert Object.

COMMENTS:
    Open Interface is an emulated GUI, that attempts to superset the
    features from the various GUIs they support.

    I've never heard a bad word regarding Neuron Data systems or their
    products.  These guys claim to have 35% of the market share for
    PIGUI tools (including some heavyweights like IBM, Microsoft,
    Hewlett- Packard, and AT&T).

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    One user says, "[They've] Implemented all kinds of ideas such as
    being able to add items to scrolling lists using the += operator in
    C++ etc etc etc. Found some bugs, but support was brilliant, and
    new releases were always pushing the frontiers forward. All bug
    reports have met with speedy response.  It is expensive, but worth
    it. Great for object-oriented development."

    Another user agrees, "The only one [PIGUI] I would recommend is
    Neuron Data's Open Interface.".

    However, one user cautions, "I [only] recommend doing development
    on a UNIX box or a Mac with this tool.  The person using our [MS]
    windows copy has had some problems with ND corrupting its own data
    files and/or crashing windows."


NAME:
    ObjectViews C++

VENDOR:
    Quest Windows Corporation
    4677 Old Ironsides Drive
    Santa Clara, CA 95054

    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a full C++ class library.  It is a superset of a non-
    proprietary API based on "InterViews".

    It includes Motif 1.2 Drag and Drop and Tear-off Menus.  It allows
    full access to native Xlib, PEX, SDK, and Mac toolkit.

SUPPORT:
    One hour free.  After that, it costs (I'm not sure how much).


NAME:
    OpenUI

VENDOR:
    Open Software Associates
    20 Trafalgar Square, Suite 414
    Nashua, NH 03063

    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)

    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This interface supports C, Pascal, (ish) COBOL, and ADA.  Not only
    is the C type safe for C++, but they're willing to supply a native
    C++ API if there's enough demand.  The software comes with a
    WYSIWYG GUI builder.  They also have a "platform pack", a
    less-expensive, de-featured package which allows software developed
    with OpenUI to be ported to other platforms.

    Their code supports stand-alone as well as client (GUI) / server
    (Logic) application development.  A client/server application can
    be developed in stand-alone mode.

    When you purchase the product, you receive 90 days of fax and
    e-mail support.  Purchased support adds-in phone access as well as
    product updates.

    In addition to GUI portability, OpenUI provides TCP/IP and DecNet
    support.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    Says one user, "Support is brilliant, among the best I have ever
    seen in the computer industry. Comes with a [GUI] builder, allows
    generation of new GUI classes using a concept of soft-classes (not
    quite inheritance, but fairly powerful). Good for when multi-
    platform support is needed, but not as powerful as OI for a single
    GUI application. They will port to other hardware fairly quickly.
    We got the SUN port within a month."

    Problems include "no file, printing or memory management support",
    according to Richard Chimera ([e-mail] -- from a report
    "Evaluation of Platform Independent Interface Builders", dated
    March 1993).


NAME:
    Presentation Services Manager

VENDOR:
    Lancorp Pty Ltd
    33 Nott St
    Port Melbourne 3207
    Australia

    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    No WYSIWYG GUI builder exists, but they do include a script
    language.


NAME:
    StarView 2.1

VENDOR:
    Star Division
    2180 Sand Hill Road, Suite 320
    Menlo Park, CA 94025

    [phone] (inquiries)
    [phone] (fax)

    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a full C++ class library that comes with their DesignEditor
    which creates resource files.  Some of the classes include SplitBar
    (a splittable scrollbar like a spreadsheet uses), tool boxes,
    status bars, file dialogs, and MS-Windows bitmap support via file
    stream IO.

    Other features/portability capabilities include international
    language support (being a German company selling software in the
    states, this makes a lot of sense), full printer support (including
    page preview), and drag&drop support.  They claim to provide
    cross-platform OLE 1.0 support (not sure how they do this).

    This product also comes with several general-purpose C++ classes
    including Strings and a very complete complement of container
    classes (e.g., Queues, Lists, and Tables).  These classes are
    included in a Microsoft Windows DLL for reduced memory usage.

COMMENTS:
    These guys are using their own code to put together a multi-
    platform word processor.  Their word processor guys keep their
    PIGUI guys informed of any incompatibilities.

    One really neat thing is that they've ported Microsoft's help to
    other platforms.  They have special (though non-portable) Microsoft
    Windows OLE and DDE classes.

FUTURE PLANS:
    OS/2 & NT in beta.
    They are working on OLE 2.0 classes as well.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    Lots of users really like StarView.  Ian Upright
    ([e-mail]), for example, says "If you're doing
    [PIGUI] development, I think you'd be insane to not check out
    StarView as an option.  [...] The entire design of the library is
    vought out.  [...] It also has
    system dependent hooks available.  Such as the ability to trap [MS]
    windows messages of a HWND."  Other users second this, "Their
    features for creating graphics and using output devices is
    marvelous." and "The class library is excellent.  It's complete.
    [...]  It's intuitive."

    Many have complained about their technical support, "They've got
    one good tech support guy, Andreas [and he IS really helpful].  You
    may not be able to call and get an immediate answer, as they're not
    always in."  Says another user, "The real disappointment with
    StarView has been their customer support.  We've known times where
    they didn't return our calls for weeks.  They've consistently been
    late with releases and shipments, and have made promises on the
    phone that were not kept."

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
    The software is new, and it seemed to me to be a bit rough around
    the edges.  I had a review copy, but never got the software to work
    with Microsoft Windows 3.0 (this is when MS-Windows 3.1 was the
    most recent version).  The support people tried extremely hard to
    help me, but I had to move on to other things without being able to
    get it to work.

NAME:
    Simple User Interface Toolkit, v2.3

VENDOR:
    University of Virginia
    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    SUIT is a (free-of-charge with strings attached) C-language
    library.  It comes with source, a 10 page tutorial, and a 160 page
    reference manual.  SUIT's prime directive is ease of learning
    (estimated time to productivity is around 2 hours -- oh, and there
    is that thing about not interfering with the natural advancement of
    an indigenous life form, but we won't get into that here :-> ).
    The software has the unusual trait that it's user-interface is
    editable even while a SUIT application program is running.

    SUIT is available with source for free for Universities and
    non-profit organizations (for-profit organizations can license SUIT
    for around $25,000).  Anyone can download it via anonymous ftp from
    uvacs.cs.virginia.edu (128.143.8.100) for evaluation purposes.

    For more information finger '[e-mail]'


NAME:
    VisualWorks / ObjectWorks

VENDOR:
    ParcPlace
    (800) 759 PARC (voice)

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    VisualWorks is a SmallTalk application development environment and
    class library for client-server GUI products.  The VisualWorks
    software includes a set of interactive development tools to help
    you, well, develop your GUI software interactively.  In addition,
    one can use the Chameleon View product to preview the look of an
    application as if it were running under different windowing
    managers on the various supported platforms.  In order to use
    VisualWorks, you must have the ParcPlace SmallTalk language
    product.

    In addition to all of this, VisualWorks includes an external
    database interface.

OPTIONS:
    CPOK (C Programming ObjectKit) allows linking with C programs for $495.

COMMENTS:
    Apparently (I haven't seen the article, personally) the June 14,1993
    issue of Computerworld ranks ParcPlace pretty highly.


NAME:
    Wind/U

VENDOR:
    Bristol Technology Inc.
    241 Ethan Allen Highway Ridgefield, CT 06877

    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)

    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    Wind/U is an implementation of the Microsoft Windows API under
    X-Windows.  It contains custom widgets to allow applications to
    utilize multiple document interface (MDI), combo boxes, dynamically
    linked libraries (DLLs), dynamic data exchange (DDE), PostScript
    and PCL (Hewlett Packard's Printer Control Language) printing, MS
    Windows-style help, and the Microsoft Foundation Classes.  In
    addition, they support the Windows GDI graphics drawing interface,
    including the coordinate system choices.  Finally, they support
    Common dialog DLLs as well as DDEML (Dynamic Data Exchange
    Management Library) DLLs.

FUTURE PLANS:
    Support for Win32 is in beta and will be available in the spring
    of 1994.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    One user says, "[Wind/U] is a fairly complete implementation of the
    Windows API for unix.  There are some bugs, and some unimplemented
    features, but it seems to be getting better over time.  Bristol's
    support for their product is truly excellent: they are very
    responsive and have been able to provide rapid turnaround for our
    problems."


NAME:
    Opus, V2.03

VENDOR:
    WNDX
    1550 8th Street S.W. Suite 305
    Calgary, Alberta Canada T2R 1K1

    [phone] (voice)

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    Does anyone know anything about this product?

COMMENTS:
    According to one article, they've altered concepts that most GUI
    developers consider conventional.  All widgets have all the
    attributes defined for them (it's just that some of the attributes
    are meaningless and, therefore, ignored).

    There are some problems, like colors are not fully editable and
    there's no way to put a picture on a button (without fudging).


NAME:
    wxWindows, V1.5

VENDOR:
    Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute
    University of Edinburgh
    80 South Bridge
    Edinburgh
    Scotland
    EH1 1HN

    031 650 2746 (voice)

    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a (free-of-charge) C++ library with source.  They have
    a program to translate the output of DevGuide (Sun's XView GUI
    builder) into wxWindows format and another one to allow one to
    use Liant's class browser with the library.

    This package includes hypertext help, printer support (this is
    better than some packages you have to pay for), and some nifty
    graphics capabilities including splines, polylines, and rounded
    rectangles.  It includes the standard menu bars, toolbars, pens,
    brushes, etc.  In addition to all of that, it includes IPC
    features that includes MS-Windows DDE support.  A CURSES version
    is in alpha.

    In addition, wxWindows includes timers, filesystem portability
    features, as well as PROLOGIO which allows the user to create
    (apparently, with some limitations) object-oriented, Prolog-
    compatible data files.

COMMENTS:
    To get this software, anonymous ftp it from skye.aiai.ed.ac.uk
    (192.41.104.6); it's in pub/wxwin or pub/wxwin/beta.  The files
    are wxwin150.tar.Z (for X-Windows demo software) or wxwin150.zip
    (for the PC).  Their GUI builder conversion program is in beta,
    and one can get it by anonymous ftp from cs.tut.fi
    (130.230.4.2); it's in the file '/pub/src/gwx10.tar.Z'.

    This is free software, so one should expect that it has a
    couple of warts relative to the packages for which one would
    pay.  It (according to the author) doesn't stick too closely to
    the style guides of the individual platforms, but "most people
    won't know the difference [... the software has] a long way to
    go before I've used all the features [of the various GUIs]".

    Still, the price is right. . .

FUTURE PLANS:
    Widget management (similar to Motif), automated GUI testing
    facilities, their own GUI builder, and a MS-Windows
    .rc-to-wxWindows converter,


NAME:
    XVT Portability Toolkit, Release 3.01

VENDOR:
    XVT Software Incorporated
    4900 Pearl East Circle
    Box 18750
    Boulder, CO 80308

    [phone] (inquiries)
    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)

    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    The basic XVT package is a C-language library (although, there's a
    C++ option).  They have a WYSIWYG GUI builder but it is also
    unbundled from the basic package.

OPTIONS:
    C++ capability                      $200
    XVT-Design (a WYSIWYG GUI builder)  $2900 ($1200 for PCs)
    Source Code                         (call)
    XVT-PowerObjects                    $495 ($395 for PCs)

SUPPORT:
    Free (with updates) for one year.  After that, call for pricing.

COMMENTS:
    --- News Flash ----
n addition,
    they may have (unsubstantiated rumor-monging, here) replaced their
    C++ implementation (Design++) with one that is a great improvement
    (Power++) over XVT++.  Users of Design++ are not happy campers, since
    the two are not compatible.

    I kinda' wish XVT would get back to me on this. . .
    ---- News Flash ----

    XVT is the original PIGUI software.  They are, in fact, being used
    as the base document for the IEEE P1201.1 Layered Application
    Program Interface for GUIs.  They seem to provide pretty solid
    support for all the platforms (and, there's a lot) that they
    support.

    XVT has chosen as a strategy unbundling everything that isn't
    absolutely essential.  Though this differs from the vast
    majority of the rest of the PIGUI world, XVT seems to feel that
    this allows users with a wider variety of budgetary constraints
    access to their products.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    The user's have said that the manuals are good and extremely
    well organized and that the Designer's test mode actually tests
    the logic (a really helpful feature).  Their tech support is
    also reportedly pretty good ("wonderous", says one user).

    The user community has mixed feelings on XVT's choice to go with
    a least-common-denominator approach to portability.  Some feel
    that the LCD approach is the only way to get true portability.
    On the other hand, one user said "...we were to use this for
    one of our products, (a 4GL screen painter), because it
    promised cross-platform GUI support [...] we were disappointed with
    the low-level common denominator chosen [...and chose another
    platform]".

    Many feel that XVT seems to be based on older technology.  For
    example, messing with color palettes doesn't seem to work too well
    and they're limited to 16-colors.  One user indicated that XVT
    provides for poor font portability.

    The C++ generated by XVT++ is generally agreed to be quite
    poor.  One user says, "...[they were using XVT until] the C++
    version arrived.  We took one look at the C++ code it
    generated, and started calling the other vendors. [...they do
    not] support callback from their control objects [...] just put
    some simple wrappers around their C code."


NAME:
    zApp, V2.0

VENDOR:
    Inmark
    2065 Landings Drive,
    Mountainview, CA 94043

    (800) 3-inmark (inquiries)
    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)

    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a full C++ class library.

    This product contains 200 classes to provide things like DDE
    support (non-portable), printer support, logical positioning (top,
    bottom, etc) of window items, and true-type font support.  Included
    in their package is 75 pre-defined forms (as well as the usual
    examples).

    The software comes with zApp Programmer's Guide (330 pages) and
    zApp Programmer's Reference (890 pages).

OPTIONS:
    Their GUI builder, called Object/Designer, is offered as an
    aftermarket product for $499.

SUPPORT:
    Free forever.

FUTURE PLANS:
    Mac & Motif support.  DDE support under Unix/Motif.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    The customer-interface is great.

    zApp receives many plaudits as one of the "big three" for
    inexpensive PIGUIs.  One user says" zApp contains without a doubt
    the absolute best C++ code I have ever seen.  It is an amazingly
    simple, intuitive interpretation of GUI and OOP interfaces".
    Another user says, "zApp is an EXCELLENT platform-independent API.
    If you truly must write your code "once" for multiple platforms,
    zApp is the C++ solution to get."

    One user complained about lack of DLL support and no portable help
    files.


NAME:
    Zinc, V3.6

VENDOR:
    ZINC Software Incorporated
    405 South 100 East 2nd Floor
    Pleasant Grove, UT 84062

    [phone] (inquires)
    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)
    [phone] (bbs)

    [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a full C++ class library that comes with the Zinc Designer
    (a WYSIWYG GUI builder).  Their classes include some graphic
    capabilities, a rather nice error system, and a portable, if
    rudimentary, help system.  Also included is the source for the
    library (and for the Designer!).

    In addition to the usual GUI stuff, Zinc also provides
    international character support (they have a Unicode version for
    extra bux) and some container classes.  They also allow you to
    incorporate platform-specific stuff (e.g., system messages) into
    their API; but, of course, you're on your own when it comes to
    porting any additions.

    The software comes with 4 manuals.  They have the Programmers
    Reference Guide (766 pp), Programming Techniques (414 pp), the
    Programmer's Guide (154 pp), and the Internationalization
    Guide (158 pages).

OPTIONS:
    They'll provide Unicode at extra cost (price, unspecified).
    Additionally, they provide a video training series (this gives lots
    of Zinc internals detail, but not a lot of relief for the novice
    programmer) for $499.

COMMENTS:
    To use their product to its fullest, you have to use their GUI
    builder (the only way you can get icons on all platforms, for
    example, is through the Designer).  Unfortunately, the Designer
    has a few drawbacks; one of these is that it creates a separate
    data file that has to be present (as well as the executable) in
    the execution path for software that uses Designer-created
    graphics to work.

FUTURE PLANS:
    Macintosh (which is now in pre-release) support, the utilization of
    the native help system, and improved graphics support.  They also
    plan to add several new classes including ones for printing, window
    geometry, index tabs, status bars, sliders, and spinners.

    Zinc has big plans for their Designer (their GUI builder) targeted,
    it seems, to provide a comfortable GUI design environment for
    non-programmers.  Their plans include easing the addition of
    user-defined widgets to the designer, parallelizing the
    main-design-screen/image-editor/help-editor, and replacing flag
    names with more user-friendly english descriptions.

    Word has it that they're completely rewriting their manuals (and
    the crowd goes wild...) to reduce the learning curve associated
    with this product.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    Many complain of the lack of intuitive feel of the API.  Ian
    Upright ([e-mail]) says, "The overall class
    library was not as simple and straight forward as I would have
    liked it to be [...] When I was playing around with it, I had to be
    fairly careful with my coding, or I could easily get a GP fault."
    Other users agree that the learning curve is steep.

    Another user is bothered by lack of user support, "On three
    separate occasions I tried for two days straight (sometimes calling
    in one-minute intervals) to contact their support line only to find
    it busy every time."

    Users praise the look and feel under DOS.

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
    This software seems to be full featured, but lacks in the
    documentation department.  The manuals give gory detail of the
    implementation of the product (which, I'm sure, is great when one
    gets to be a guru with the product and wants to extend its
    capabilities), but little information on how to get started
    quickly.  What their documents do say about using Zinc is mostly
    focused on the use of Zinc Designer, their WYSIWYG GUI builder; if
    you don't want to use that, you have to figure it out for
    yourself.

    On a more positive note, once you get used to the paradigm, it *is*
    pretty straight-forward to program.  In addition, the software is
    becoming more robust with each release.



VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to the many netters that have helped give information and
general impressions of the software packages listed here.  Also thanks
to the vendors for keeping this FAQ accurate and up-to-date.

In specific, I'd like to thank Eric Raymond ([e-mail]),
'cause I stole his UNIX FAQ format for use here.  Thanks, Eric.

I looked at some articles about GUIs for information.  Those include:

    Richard Chimera, [e-mail], "Evaluation of Platform
    Independent Interface Builders", dated March 1993.

    Carl Dichter, "One For All. . .", UNIX Review, October 1993,
    pp. 65-74

    Thomas Murhpy, "Looking at the world through cheap sunglasses",
    Computer Language, February 1993, pp. 63-85

    UNIX Review Staff, "Outstanding Products of 1993", UNIX Review,
    December 1993, pp. 47-54

--
Wade Guthrie                     | "They couldn't hit an *elephant* at this
[e-mail]             | dis...", last words of Mjr. Gen. (?)
I don't speak for Rockwell.      | Sedgewick, American Civil War.