Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)

These can be created directly in C/C++, or the code can be created by a GUI generator. An alternative approach is to use a language like Tcl/Tk designed for GUI building.

Motif and Athena

toolkits allow programming at a higher conceptual level than Xlib, allowing the programmer to work in terms of buttons and scrollbars rather than dots and lines. Typically a toolkit contains

• standard components:- buttons, scrollbars, pop-up menus etc, collectively known as Widgets.

• means to combine these widgets

• means to construct new widgets

The Motif toolkit is a popular one. Athena widgets provide a Public Domain alternative. There's a Motif tutorial in the online CUED help system.

xforms

is a public domain GUI designer that produces C or C++ code. See the xforms handout for details.

Tk/Tcl

offers a quick way to produce front ends. It's script-based, though it can also be used as a library from C. See the online Tcl/Tk information or the Tcl homepage for details. Type cd /export/Examples/tk; wish widget for a demo.

xb

offers easy buttons for low level Xlib applications. It's no longer recommended.

gtk

is a GUI library. See the GIMP toolkit homepage or the online tutorial for details.

Qt

is ``cross-platform C++ GUI application development framework''. More information is at http://www.trolltech.com/. It's installed on the Teaching System under /opt/qt. /opt/qt/bin/designer is a program that generates code for GUIs.

Matlab

has a guide facility that can be used to create front ends for matlab programs.