DocsX Window System
X Version 11, Release 7.7
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Copyright © 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1994 Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, Massachusetts.
Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appears in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of Digital not be used in in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. Digital makes no representations about the suitability of the software described herein for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
The design of the X11 Intrinsics was done primarily by Joel McCormack of Digital WSL. Major contributions to the design and implementation also were done by Charles Haynes, Mike Chow, and Paul Asente of Digital WSL. Additional contributors to the design and/or implementation were:
| Loretta Guarino-Reid (Digital WSL) | Rich Hyde (Digital WSL) |
| Susan Angebranndt (Digital WSL) | Terry Weissman (Digital WSL) |
| Mary Larson (Digital UEG) | Mark Manasse (Digital SRC) |
| Jim Gettys (Digital SRC) | Leo Treggiari (Digital SDT) |
| Ralph Swick (Project Athena and Digital ERP) | Mark Ackerman (Project Athena) |
| Ron Newman (Project Athena) | Bob Scheifler (MIT LCS) |
The contributors to the X10 toolkit also deserve mention. Although the X11 Intrinsics present an entirely different programming style, they borrow heavily from the implicit and explicit concepts in the X10 toolkit.
The design and implementation of the X10 Intrinsics were done by:
| Terry Weissman (Digital WSL) |
| Smokey Wallace (Digital WSL) |
| Phil Karlton (Digital WSL) |
| Charles Haynes (Digital WSL) |
| Frank Hall (HP) |
The design and implementation of the X10 toolkit’s sample widgets were by the above, as well as by:
| Ram Rao (Digital UEG) |
| Mary Larson (Digital UEG) |
| Mike Gancarz (Digital UEG) |
| Kathleen Langone (Digital UEG) |
These widgets provided a checklist of requirements that we had to address in the X11 Intrinsics.
Thanks go to Al Mento of Digital’s UEG Documentation Group for formatting and generally improving this document and to John Ousterhout of Berkeley for extensively reviewing early drafts of it.
Finally, a special thanks to Mike Chow, whose extensive performance analysis of the X10 toolkit provided the justification to redesign it entirely for X11.
Joel McCormack
Western Software Laboratory
Digital Equipment Corporation
March 1988
The current design of the Intrinsics has benefited greatly from the input of several dedicated reviewers in the membership of the X Consortium. In addition to those already mentioned, the following individuals have dedicated significant time to suggesting improvements to the Intrinsics:
| Steve Pitschke (Stellar) | C.Doug Blewett (AT&T) |
| Bob Miller (HP) | David Schiferl (Tektronix) |
| Fred Taft (HP) | Michael Squires (Sequent) |
| Marcel Meth (AT&T) | JimFulton (MIT) |
| Mike Collins (Digital) | Kerry Kimbrough (Texas Instruments) |
| Scott McGregor (Digital) | Phil Karlton (Digital) |
| Julian Payne (ESS) | Jacques Davy (Bull) |
| Gabriel Beged-Dov (HP) | GlennWidener (Tektronix) |
Thanks go to each of them for the countless hours spent reviewing drafts and code.
Ralph R. Swick
External Research Group
Digital Equipment Corporation
MIT Project Athena
June 1988
From Release 3 to Release 4, several new members joined the design team. We greatly appreciate the thoughtful comments, suggestions, lengthy discussions, and in some cases implementation code contributed by each of the following:
| Don Alecci (AT&T) | EllisCohen (OSF) |
| Donna Converse (MIT) | Clive Feather (IXI) |
| Nayeem Islam (Sun) | Dana Laursen (HP) |
| Keith Packard (MIT) | Chris Peterson (MIT) |
| Richard Probst (Sun) | Larry Cable (Sun) |
In Release 5, the effort to define the internationalization additions was headed by Bill McMahon of Hewlett Packard and Frank Rojas of IBM. This has been an educational process for many of us, and Bill and Frank’s tutelage has carried us through. Vania Joloboff of the OSF also contributed to the internationalization additions. The implementation efforts of Bill, Gabe Beged-Dov, and especially Donna Converse for this release are also gratefully acknowledged.
Ralph R. Swick
December 1989
and
July 1991
The Release 6 Intrinsics is a result of the collaborative efforts of participants in the X Consortium’s intrinsics working group. A few individuals contributed substantial design proposals, participated in lengthy discussions, reviewed final specifications, and in most cases, were also responsible for sections of the implementation. They deserve recognition and thanks for their major contributions:
| Paul Asente (Adobe) | Larry Cable (SunSoft) |
| Ellis Cohen (OSF) | Daniel Dardailler (OSF) |
| Vania Joloboff (OSF) | KalebKeithley (X Consortium) |
| Courtney Loomis (HP) | Douglas Rand (OSF) |
| Bob Scheifler (X Consortium) | Ajay Vohra (SunSoft) |
Many others analyzed designs, offered useful comments and suggestions, and participated in a significant subset of the process. The following people deserve thanks for their contributions: Andy Bovingdon, Sam Chang, Chris Craig, George Erwin-Grotsky, Keith Edwards, Clive Feather, Stephen Gildea, Dan Heller, Steve Humphrey, David Kaelbling, Jaime Lau, Rob Lembree, Stuart Marks, Beth Mynatt, Tom Paquin, Chris Peterson, Kamesh Ramakrishna, Tom Rodriguez, Jim VanGilder, Will Walker, and Mike Wexler.
I am especially grateful to two of my colleagues: Ralph Swick for expert editorial guidance, and Kaleb Keithley for leadership in the implementation and the specification work.
Donna Converse
X Consortium
April 1994
Table of Contents
- About This Manual
- 1. Intrinsics and Widgets
- Intrinsics
- Languages
- Procedures and Macros
- Widgets
- Implementation-Specific Types
- Widget Classing
- Widget Naming Conventions
- Widget Subclassing in Public .h Files
- Widget Subclassing in Private .h Files
- Widget Subclassing in .c Files
- Widget Class and Superclass Look Up
- Widget Subclass Verification
- Superclass Chaining
- Class Initialization: class_initialize and class_part_initialize Procedures
- Initializing a Widget Class
- Inheritance of Superclass Operations
- Invocation of Superclass Operations
- Class Extension Records
- 2. Widget Instantiation
- Initializing the X Toolkit
- Establishing the Locale
- Loading the Resource Database
- Parsing the Command Line
- Creating Widgets
- Creating and Merging Argument Lists
- Creating a Widget Instance
- Creating an Application Shell Instance
- Convenience Procedure to Initialize an Application
- Widget Instance Allocation: The allocate Procedure
- Widget Instance Initialization: The initialize Procedure
- Constraint Instance Initialization: The ConstraintClassPart initialize Procedure
- Nonwidget Data Initialization: The initialize_hook Procedure
- Realizing Widgets
- Obtaining Window Information from a Widget
- Destroying Widgets
- Exiting from an Application
- 3. Composite Widgets and Their Children
- 4. Shell Widgets
- 5. Pop-Up Widgets
- 6. Geometry Management
- 7. Event Management
- Adding and Deleting Additional Event Sources
- Constraining Events to a Cascade of Widgets
- Focusing Events on a Child
- Querying Event Sources
- Dispatching Events
- The Application Input Loop
- Setting and Checking the Sensitivity State of a Widget
- Adding Background Work Procedures
- X Event Filters
- Widget Exposure and Visibility
- X Event Handlers
- Using the Intrinsics in a Multi-Threaded Environment
- 8. Callbacks
- 9. Resource Management
- 10. Translation Management
- 11. Utility Functions
- Determining the Number of Elements in an Array
- Translating Strings to Widget Instances
- Managing Memory Usage
- Sharing Graphics Contexts
- Managing Selections
- Merging Exposure Events into a Region
- Translating Widget Coordinates
- Translating a Window to a Widget
- Handling Errors
- Setting WM_COLORMAP_WINDOWS
- Finding File Names
- Hooks for External Agents
- 12. Nonwidget Objects
- 13. Evolution of the Intrinsics
- A. Resource File Format
- B. Translation Table Syntax
- C. Compatibility Functions
- D. Intrinsics Error Messages
- E. Defined Strings
- F. Resource Configuration Management