Games of Daze/Infomagic - Games of Daze (Summer 1995) (Disc 1 of 2).iso/x2ftp/msdos/faq/portgui.114

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From: [e-mail] (Wade Guthrie)
Subject: (FAQ) Portable GUI Development Kits, part 1/2
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
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 1995 00:59:26 GMT
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Expires: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 00:59:21 GMT
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Archive-name: portable-GUI-software/part1
Last-modified: Tue Jan 17 17:38:54 PST 1995
Version: 1.14


-----------------------------------
Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995 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. GLOSSARY
    IV.  USER-INTERFACE APPROACHES
    V.   FEATURES AND SUPPORTED PLATFORMS

    -- part 2 --
    VI.  VENDOR REPORTS
    VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS



I. WHAT'S NEW IN THIS ISSUE. . .

Not a darned thing.


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-DEPENDENT 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 ([e-mail], or [e-mail]).
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 functions
and/or objects (along with a programming approach) which is independent
of which GUI the programmer is targeting.  For the purposes of *this*
document, a PIGUI must support the native look-and-feel for GUIs under
at least two different operating systems (so just supporting OpenLook
and Motif on two Unix boxes doesn't count).  The toolkit does not
necessarily provide any additional portability features.

Now, let's consider Petula Sniggly, a programmer who 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.


III. 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 which includes hypertext help, IPC (q.v.),
           printer support, and a bunch of other stuff.  The look-and-
           feel is Motif-like, but there's a lot more than that to CDE.
           It looks like CDE certification will be withheld from most
           (if not all) PIGUIs since CDE includes its own API -- you
           have to comply with the API to be certified.

COSE       Common Open Software Environment.  COSE is the industry-agreed-
           upon graphical environment that will augment (significantly)
           and replace Motif and OpenLook.

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 or OS/2.

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.  Several
           versions exist, including PCL4 and PCL5.

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.  This is yet another technology created by
           Xerox Parc.

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 Latin alphabet (as used for
       English and other languages), 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.


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:

    - support for the platforms you need,
    - the choice of implementation language,
    - availability and price of source code,
    - printer support,
    - support for international character sets,
    - capability to support draw-package-like features,
    - bitmap (and icon) support,
    - the approach to platform independence (see below),
    - nifty high-level widgets, and
    - price (complete price including royalties and distribution
      charges),

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 (in fact, at least one vendor has abandoned an existing
OpenLook product).

The following products are listed in this FAQ.  Abbreviations are given
for product names which are too long to go into the tables.

    Views   C++/Views, Liant
    CLIM    Common Lisp Interface Manager, several vendors
    CommonV Glockenspiel CommonView, Computer Associates
    DCLAP   Don's Class Application library, Don Gilbert
    Galaxy  Galaxy, Visix
    Guild   Guild, Guild
    ILOG    ILOG VIEWS, ILOG
    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
    NuTCRAC NuTCRACKER, DataFocus, Inc.
    ObViews ObjectViews C++, Quest Windows Corporation
    OI      Open Interface, Neuron Data
    OpenUI  OpenUI, Open Software Associates
    PSM     Presentation Services Manager, Lancorp Pty Ltd.
    ScrMach Screen Machine, Objective Interface Systems, Inc.
    StarVie StarView, StarDivision
    SUIT    Simple User Interface Toolkit, University of Virginia
    VisWork VisualWorks, ParcPlace
    Wind/U  Wind/U, Bristol Technology
    WMMOTIF WM_MOTIF User Interface Library, Software UNO, Ltd.
    WNDX    WNDX GUI Toolkit, WNDX
    wxWind  wxWindows, Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute
    XVT     XVT Portability Toolkit, XVT Software Inc.
    YACL    Yet Another Class Library, M. A. Sridhar.
    zApp    zApp, Inmark
    Zinc    Zinc, Zinc

In addition, I'd like to mention the following products that are
not mentioned in this document (well, not except for here):

    Appware This product has been *de-emphasized* (which is commonly
        believed to mean 'dropped') by Novel.
    Aspect  Looks like 'Open' has gone out of business.
    STDWIN  This product is no longer supported, but it's free from
        ftp://ftp.cwi.nl/pub/stdwin/.


                 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
------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Views   -     soon 1499f  1499f   1499   2499  -     1499  .     .
CLIM    .     .    .      .       .      yes   yes   soon  .     .

CommonV .     .    yes    .       yes    yes   soon  soon  .     .
DCLAP   .     .    (k)    .       .      (k)   .     (k)   .     .
Galaxy  -     -    7800q  soon    9600q  (mq)  (mq)  9600q -     .
Guild   -     -    895    895     895    soon  -     895   -     .

ILOG    -     -    5000   7500    soon   7500  -     -     -     -
JAM     yes   yes  yes    .       .      yes   yes   .     .     .
libWxm  -     -    (h)    (h)     (v)    yes   -     (v)   -     .

MAINWin -     -    (h)    (h)     (v)    5000n -     (v)   -     .
Menuet  -     499  599    -       599    999   -     .     yes   .
MEWEL   1595  395u (h)    (h)     795    -     -     (v)   -     .

NuTCRAC -     -    -      2995    -      (h)   -     -     -     -
ObViews -     -    yes    yes     .      yes   -     yes   -     .
OI      yes   yes  5800   6850    6850   9850  9850  4800  .     .
OpenUI  yes   -    3500   soon    4900   7900g -     3500  (w)   .

PSM     .     .    yes    .       .      yes   .     soon  .     .
ScrMach 495   495  1995   soon    -      (p)   -     -     -     -
StarVie -     -    499    soon    495    soon  soon  soon  .     .
SUIT    .     (k)  (k)    .       .      (k)   (k)   (k)   .     .

VisWork .     .    2995   .       2995   4995  4995  2995  .     .
Wind/U  -     -    (h)    (h)     (v)    9950  -     (v)   -     .
WMMOTIF 1500  -    (h)    (h)     -      1995  -     (v)   -     .

WNDX    .     995  695    995     soon   1495  1495  995   .     .
wxWind  soon  -    free   free    -      free  free  -     -     .

XVT     call  1950 1950   6300ab  1950   6300a (c)   1950  .     .
YACL    -     -    free   -       soon   free  -     -     -     -
zApp    -     495z 495    495     695    1995  -     soon  -     .
Zinc(e) 1499e 299e 299(f) 299(f)  299e   1499  -     299ej 299   soon
------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 $1950.
(b) For non-x86 platforms, check for availability -- Alpha and MIPS
    supported.
(c) Support for this product has been discontinued.
(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 API that's native on this platform (e.g.,
    support for Win32 under MS-Windows NT); so, in that sense, it supports
    this platform.
(j) Pre-release.
(k) This product is free for non-commercial use.  If you make a profit,
    you'll have to check with the vendor for pricing and availability.
(m) The price is per machine.  For $9600, you get Motif, OpenLook, CUA,
    and Microsoft Windows on a single machine.
(n) The cost drops for subsequent copies.  Number 2 is $3500 and number
    3 is $2000.
(p) The pricing here is a little complicated.  It was explained to me
    as follows. "We have both systems based pricing and floating license
    pricing.  The system based pricing runs from $3K (small Sun or SCO)
    to $24K (big VAX or Sun 2000).  The Unix Motif floating license
    pricing is $6K for the first license and $3K for each additional
    license."
(q) This is the C price.  You're looking at $12.2K for C++.
(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.
(z) DOS Text is sold separately from DOS graphics.

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, OTHER NIFTIES, AND HIDDEN COSTS

Vendor  Type(p) Eval(a) Source Royalty Distrib(z) Language Builder(g)
------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Views   layered (j)     free   no      .          C++      yes
CLIM    .       (u)     .      .       .          Cmn Lisp (u)

CommonV layered .       yes    no      .          C++      .
DCLAP   .       free    free   .       .          C/C++    .
Galaxy  emulate (d)     (e)    no      .          C/C++    yes
Guild   .       .       (f)    no      .          C        yes

ILOG    emulate 30      no     no      -          C++      yes
JAM     layered .       yes    no      .          C        yes
libWxm  API emu .       .      .       .          .        .

MAINWin API emu 30      no     (w)     .          C/C++    $199
Menuet  .       .       .      .       .          .        .
MEWEL   API emu .       (r)    no      .          C(s)     (t)

NuTCRAC API emu .       yes    .       yes        C/C++    .
ObViews layered .       .      no      .          C++      .
OI      emulate (x)     .      no      $8,000     C/C++(k) yes
OpenUI  layered (q)     (e,b)  no      .          C(h)     yes

PSM     .       .       .      yes     .          .        no
ScrMach layered 30      (e)    no      .          Ada      free
StarVie layered 30      yes    no      .          C++      yes
SUIT    .       free    free   .       .          C        .

VisWork emulate 30(j)   100000 yes     .          SmalTalk yes
Wind/U  API emu 30(j)   (f)    no      $19,500/yr C/C++    (t)
WMMOTIF API emu (j)     7500   no      .          C/C++    (t)

WNDX    layered 30      (f)    no      .          C        yes
wxWind  .       free    free   no      .          C++      (n)

XVT     layered (j)     yes    no      .          C/C++    yes
YACL    .       free    free   no      -          C++      .
zApp    layered 60(j)   free   no      .          C++      $499
Zinc    layered 60      free   no      -          C++      yes
------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vendor  Type(p) Eval(a) Source Royalty Distrib(z) 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 (minus,
    possibly, a cost for the evaluation -- check with the vendor).
(b) Open Software Associates is willing to make a deal for source on a
    case-by-case basis.
(d) Give them a P.O.  They'll give it back if you don't like the product.
    They require the evaluator to take a 1 week, $2500 course.
(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) There is a cost for evaluation.
(k) They've taken a 'wrappers' approach -- you can't subclass from their
    C++ classes.
(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, OS/2, and Unix 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 C/C++-based (depending on the nature of the product) MS Windows
    Application Builder will work.
(u) Different LISP vendors support CLIM -- each provides a different
    set of options and pricing structures.
(w) MAINWin kind-of charges royalties. Every machine on which one or
    more applications developed with MAINWin is to be run needs 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'.
(z) This represents a cost per platform or application (check with
    the vendor) distributed.  It's not technically a royalty since the
    cost is not per unit of software shipped, but it is a cost that
    one has to consider.  These costs are usually limited to
    commercial applications.


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.
An `x' indicates that support for the hardware/OS is being PHASED
       OUT.
An `i' indicates that I've heard that the vendor has ported their
       libraries, but they are only available in-house.
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

    C               M   N   O     S S   V   W
    o   G       L M A   u O p O   c t   i   M W w
V   m D a G     i e I M T b e p   r a   s   M i x
i C m C l u I   b n N E C V n e   M r S W W O n W   Y z Z
e L o L e i L J w u W W R i I n P a V U o N T d i X A A i
w I n A x l O A x e i E A e n U S c i I r D I / n V C p n
s M V P y d G M m t n L C w t I M h e T k X F U d T L p c  Systems
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- . . . - . - . . . - c - - . - . - - c . c - . - . - c y  DOS Graphics
p . . . - . - . . . - c - - . - . c - . . - - . - . - c c  DOS Text
. . . . . . - . . . - . - . . - . c . . . c - . . c - y c  16-bit DOS Extender
. . . . . . - . . c - c - . . - . c . . . c - . . - - - c  32-bit DOS Extender

- . . . - . - . . . - c . - . y . c - . . . c . p y - . c  ASCII Text
y . c c - c c . e c e e - c c y c c c c c c e e c c c c y  MS-Windows 3.x Win16
. . . . y . c . . . . . - . . . . . . . . c - . . c . . c  MS-Windows Win32s
c . b c c c - . . . - - - c c y b - c c c c - . - c - b b  Macintosh
. . . . . . - . . . - . - . . p . - b . . p - . . c - . p  Macintosh PowerPC
c . c . c c p . . c - c - - c y c - c . c p - . - c - c c  OS/2

c . . . y c c . . . c p c c c b . p c . . c - . b c . c c  80x86   / Windows NT Win32
p . . . b . b . . . c p . . c - . p c . . . - . - c . . p  DEC AXP / Windows NT
- . . . b . - . . . c p . . . - . p p . . . - . - - . . .  MIPS    / Windows NT

- . b . y . c . . . c - - . c - . - c c c c - . c x - - -  SunOS / OpenLook
c . . c y b c . c . c - - . . c . c c c . c p y c c - y c  SunOS / Motif
c . . . . . c . . . c . - . . . . . . . . c c . . c - c .  Sun Solaris 2.x / Motif

- . . . . . - . . . p - e . . c . c - . . . c . c x . . .  ISC             / Motif
c . . . . . c . . . p - e . . . . . . . . . p c . c . - .  DEC AXP OSF1    / Motif
. . . . . . - . . . - - e . . . . . . . . . - . . c . - .  DEC AXP OpenVMS / Motif
- . . . y . - . . . - - e . c c . c p . c . - . c x c - .  DEC Ultrix      / Motif
p . . . y . - . . . - - e . c c . c p . . . - p . c . - p  DEC Vax VMS
. . . . . . - . . . . - e . . . . . . . . . - . . c . . .  AT&T System 3000/ Motif
c . . . . . - . . . - - e . c c c c p . . . c . c c . y c  SCO Unix/Xenix  / Motif
- . . . c . - . c . - - e . c - . - p . . . - p c c . . .  MIPS            / Motif
c . . . y . c . c . c - e . c c . c p c c c c c c c . y c  HP 9000/HPUX    / Motif
c . . . y . c . c . c - e . c c . c c c c . c y c c . y c  IBM RS-6000/AIX / Motif
c . . . c . c . c . c - . . c - . c p c . c - y y c . c c  Silicon Graphics
- . . . . . - . . . - - . . . - c - - . . . - . . - . . .  Pyramid
. . . . i . . . . . . . e . i . . . . . . . . . c . c . .  Linux           / Motif


                 Table 4: SUPPORT FEATURES
        With     800                     FTP     Read           Support
Vendor  sale    number? BBS? Compuserv? server? USENET? Other  contracts
------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Views   60d     no      yes  no         no      yes     .      $399-$599/yr
CLIM    (c)     (c)     (c)  (c)        (c)     (c)     (c)    (c)

CommonV (a)     ?       .    .          .       .       .      -
DCLAP   none    no      no   no         yes     yes     .      -
Galaxy  none    yes     no   no         yes     yes     (k)    $1,995/yr
Guild   90d     ?       .    .          .       .       .      $100/month

ILOG    none    yes     no   yes        yes     yes     (n)    15%/yr
JAM     .       ?       .    .          .       .       .      .
libWxm  .       ?       .    .          .       .       .      .

MAINWin 1 year  yes     .    .          yes     .       (h)    $1000/yr(e)
Menuet  .       ?       .    .          .       .       .      .
MEWEL   yes     no      yes  yes        yes     yes     .      $250/yr

NuTCRAC 30      ?       no   no         no      yes     .      $500-$2000/yr
ObViews .       ?       .    .          .       .       .      yes
OI      .       ?       yes  .          .       yes     .      $1200-$2400/yr
OpenUI  90d     no      soon no         soon    yes     (h)    12%-30%/yr

PSM     .       ?       .    .          .       .       .      -
ScrMach 1 year  yes     no   no         no      yes     (hk)   20%/yr
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     (mn)   12%-20%/yr
WMMOTIF 30d     yes     yes  yes        yes     yes     .      20/yr
WNDX    30d     no      yes  soon       no      no      (hn)   (p)
wxWind  .       no      no   no         .       yes     .      -

XVT     6 mon.  no      yes  yes        yes     (r)     (b)    (call)
YACL    -       no      no   no         .       yes     .      -
zApp    forever no      yes  yes        yes     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.
(b) There's a mailing list.
(c) CLIM is a multi-vendor product.  See the individual vendor for information.
(d) There is a SUIT mailing list.  Send email to
    '[e-mail]' 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.
(m) WWW support.
(n) Newsletter.
(p) Cost of technical support per year == purchase price of product.
(r) Informally.


--
Wade Guthrie                     | "Here's to way *WAY* too many MIPS, vintage
[e-mail]             | sports cars, AD&D (first edition), and
I don't speak for Rockwell.      | single malt whiskey aged in sherry casks."
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.answers,news.answers
Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hookup!newshost.marcam.com!zip.eecs.umich.edu!caen!math.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!newsfeed.rice.edu!nb.rockwell.com!wade
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: Sat, 18 Feb 1995 00:59:28 GMT
Approved: [e-mail]
Expires: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 00:59:21 GMT
Lines: 1460
Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu comp.windows.misc:7114 comp.answers:10153 news.answers:35346

Archive-name: portable-GUI-software/part2
Last-modified: Tue Jan 17 17:38:54 PST 1995
Version: 1.14


-----------------------------------
Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995 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

-- In case you only got part II ------
You can get the latest version (both parts) of this FAQ
*FREE-OF-CHARGE* by anonymous FTP from 'rtfm.mit.edu' in the
/pub/usenet/comp.windows.misc directory.
--------------------------------------


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


NAME:
    C++/Views, V3.0.1

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

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

    Email: [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 (that includes a
    class browser and portable resource editor) 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
    and persistent object storage.

    C++/Views Constructor is the focal point of the C++/Views
    development process.  One uses the browser to navigate through his
    application to, among other things, find appropriate GUI base
    classes.  From there, one can derive new class descriptions which
    the browser uses to generate the necessary C++ source code.  The
    user doesn't see individual events; they handled by virtual
    callback functions in the base classes.

SUPPORT:
    60 days free.  After that, $399/year for Microsoft Windows /
    Windows NT, Mac, and OS/2; $599/yr for Motif.  All support
    contracts now include upgrades.

COMMENTS:
    Liant believes that their product is different from the rest
    because C++/Views provides a higher level of abstraction from
    most of the rest of the PIGUIs and, therefore, is easier to
    come up-to-speed.

    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.

    Liant was founded in 1980.

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).


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
    Email: [e-mail]

    Franz, Berkeley, CA

    Harlelquin

    Illudium
    Email: [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:
    Don's Class Application (DCLAP) library.

VENDOR:
    Don Gilbert,
    Indiana University at Bloomington, Biocomputing Dept.

    Email: [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a (free-of-charge) barebones C++ application framework with
    no detailed documentation.

COMMENTS:
    You can get it via anonymous ftp from ftp.bio.indiana.edu.  It's in
    the /util/dclap directory.

    According to the author, it "has several important flaws".  But, on
    the other hand, it's free for non-commercial uses.  It is built on
    the cross-platform toolkit from the National Center for
    Biotechnology Information (NCBI) of the National Library of
    Medicine (NLM) available for anonymous ftp from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov as
    /toolbox/ncbi_tools/ncbi.tar.Z.


NAME:
    Galaxy, V1.2

VENDOR:
    Visix
    11440 Commerce Park Drive
    Reston, Virginia 22091

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

    Email: [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    There are C++ and C versions of this library.  The package includes
    a WYSIWYG GUI builder.  They ship the tools with static and
    dynamically loaded libraries, debugging libraries, as well as
    single- and multi-look-and-feel versions.

    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).  Also, errors are handled with an abstract exception
    handling framework.  They support geometry management and
    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.
    They include lots of high-level objects for use by developers;
    these objects include a font chooser, an icon editor, a directory
    browser (for file selection), and a color chooser.

    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.

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

    They claim support for MS-Windows v3.1, but support is only for
    (the still buggy) Win32s and not Win16.

    Contrary to popular belief, Visix is not planning (as of 15 June
    1994) to drop their policy of requiring (costly) training in order
    to get an evaluation copy of Galaxy.

    Visix was founded in 1989 and is privately held.  Galaxy has been
    in development since 1986 and has been on-the-market since 1992.
    Over 2,000 copies of Galaxy has been licensed to more than 250
    companies.

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 [different] 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."


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:
    ILOG Views

VENDOR:
    ILOG Inc.
    2105 Landings Drive
    Mountain View, CA 94943

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

    email: [e-mail]
    WWW:   http://www.ilog.fr/ilog/home.html

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    ILOG Views is a portable C++ library of graphical objects.  This
    product includes a GUI editor for developing both standard and
    'very' graphical user interfaces.  ILOG Views seems to be targeted
    at graphics intensive applications; they claim it can display
    10,000 graphic objects per second, for example, on standard a PC.

    ILOG Views has several levels at which one can operate including
    the line-and-box level (with PostScript support), the 2-D object
    level, the object manager level (move groups, do rotation of
    groups), or the power-widgets level (which covers not only stuff
    like spreadsheets, but also things like a gantt editor).

    This library provides portable graphics, double buffering,
    persistent objects (using ASCII files), and IPC (sockets and RPC).

OPTIONS:
    ILOG BUILDER (a GUI builder that generates OSF/Motif interfaces).
    ILOG DB LINK (RDBMS connection library)
    ILOG SERVER

SUPPORT:

COMMENTS:
    ILOG is a 110 person ISV focussed on C++ development tools.



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)

    Email: [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 v1.1

VENDOR:
    MAINSoft Corporation
    1270 Oakmead parkway, suite 310
    Sunnyvale, CA 94086

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

    Email: [e-mail]
    WWW:   http://www.mainsoft.com/

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    MAINWin is a portable implementation (to any system offering POSIX
    compliance and Xlib) of the MS Windows API (including the Microsoft
    Foundation Classes) on Unix/X-Windows.  They support DDEML, Win32
    message format, and most of the Win32s APIs.  The CDK includes
    printer support, a resource compiler, a help compiler (they have
    support for Winhelp using the windows .hlp files), a makefile
    generator plus some additional tools.

    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 and the Chicago API and look.
    They also plan to provide the MAINWin/Device Driver Kit.

COMMENTS:
    MAINSoft has entered into a source code license agreement with
    Microsoft.  This agreement allows MAINSoft to incorporate MS-Windows
    code into their product.

    In addition, MAINWin includes something they call DOS Data
    Representation technology into their toolkit.  This allows the user
    to use MS-DOS format files under the other platforms supported by
    their software.


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 4.1

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.  MEWEL supports the usual stuff
    including icons, MDI, dialog boxes.  MEWEL/Pro supports the 16 and
    32-bit extenders that come with Borland PowerPack, Pharlap 286,
    Pharlap 386/TNT, Watcom/Rational DOS/4GW, and DJGPP's GO32

    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.

COMMENTS:
    You can download demos and info from ftp://ftp.uu.net/vendor/uno/


NAME:
    NuTCRACKER X/SDK

VENDOR:
    DataFocus, Inc.
    12450 Fair Lakes Circle, Suite 400
    Fairfax, VA 22033

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

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    NuTCRACKER is an implementation of the Motif API (as well as some
    of the standard Unix calls) under Windows/NT.  In addition, they
    provide a non-X Windows SDK which allows curses users to port their
    code (I don't know if this ports to Windows or an MS-DOS window
    running curses).

    They have an internal deployment seat (called the X/OE) which costs
    $495.  For outside distribution, there's a $5K/100 seats or a $20K
    buy out price tag.

    Besides GUI portability, NuTCRACKER also supports Unix process
    control, Unix IPC mechanisms (i.e., shared memory, named pipes, BSD
    sockets, and semaphores) as well as some of Unix's security
    features.

SUPPORT:
    Each purchase (or evaluation copy) of NuTCRACKER comes with 30 days
    of free support via telephone, fax, or e-mail.  After that, you can
    purchase Schedule A support (voice, fax, and e-mail with a maximum
    24 hour response time) for $2000/year or the Schedule B support
    (fax and e-mail only with a 48 hour maximum response time) for
    $500/year.


FUTURE PLANS:
    Their next release will support Daytona and the VC++ 2.0 compiler.
    They have committed to supporting Windows 95 (was Chicago) and
    Windows NT on the PowerPC.


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++.  It's important to note that their C++ uses a wrappers
    approach that does NOT allow one to sub-class from their C++
    classes.

    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 tying UI components to
    one of many supported relational databases.  This allows the UI
    to control the database and changes in the database to be
    propagated back into the UI.

    "Smart Elements" is for integrating knowledge-based systems with
    Neuron's GUI stuff.  This allows changes to objects in the
    knowledge based system to be propagated to the UI and vice versa.
    In addition, these are integrated with a scripting language which
    causes changes in both the knowledge base and the UI.

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

    Particularly if one looks at Neuron Data's optional products, one
    can see a leaning toward support of DBMS and expert systems.

    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."

    Another complaint I seem to be seeing concerns slow and poor
    technical support.


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, 2.13

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

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

    Email: [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:
    Screen Machine, V1.41

VENDOR:
    Objective Interface Systems, Inc.
    1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 250
    Reston, Virginia 22091-5448

    (800) 800-OIS7 (inquiries)
    [phone] (voice)
    [phone] (fax)

    Email: [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is an Ada PIGUI which includes a WYSIWYG GUI builder.

    The product fully supports Ada's built in multi-threading
    capabilities (protects against non-re-entrant code in the native
    windowing systems).  This allows SQL applications and such to
    continue processing input from the user while waiting on one or
    more database transactions.

    Screen Machine (I have to give them two points for the name alone)
    includes an Ada code generator that generates layered Ada GUI code
    that follows the presentation/dialog/application scheme.

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

FUTURE PLANS:
    OIS is currently developing an Ada94 (fully O-O) parallel
    implementation of Fresco/C++ (new Xt replacement technology in
    X11R6).  This new Fresco_Ada(tm) will offer the same object
    embedding (via CORBA), multi-threading support, resolution
    independence, multiple look-and-feel emulation, and structured
    graphics that the C++ version of Fresco.  The CORBA interface will
    allow Fresco_Ada applications to transparently interoperate with
    Fresco/C++ applications.  OIS is extending the product to include a
    full MVC paradymn and fully automatic memory reclaimation.  Windows
    NT and Windows 4.0 versions are planned in addition to the VMS and
    Unix X Windows versions.


NAME:
    StarView 2.1

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

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

    Email: [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) but not multi-byte character
    sets, full printer support (including page preview), endian-aware
    classes, platform-independent file specification, 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 (originally written in C++, I
    might add) 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
    very intelligent and VERY well thought 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 people still complain about their support, even though their
    primary support guy is really helpful and they've added another
    technical support person.  "They've got one good tech support guy,
    Andreas [they've added another].  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
    Email: [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 v2.0

VENDOR:
    ParcPlace
    (800) 759 PARC (voice)
    Email: [e-mail]

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 addition to all of this, VisualWorks includes an external
    database interface, currently for Oracle and Sybase.

OPTIONS:
    Advanced Tools - performance benchmarks, complex numbers, extended
    browser, metanumbers, parser compiler, space use profiler, class
    analysis and reports (e.g., variables used but not defined).

    Business Graphics - pie, bar, line, etc., charts

    DLL & C Connect - parse C header files, call out to DLLs and
    shared libraries

    Oracle Connect 2.0

    Sybase Connect 2.0

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


NAME:
    Wind/U v2.0

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

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

    Email: [e-mail]
    WWW: http://www.bristol.com

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    Wind/U is an implementation of the Microsoft Windows API under
    Unix/Motif.  Wind/U supports Win16 and Win32 and the Microsoft
    Foundation Classes 1.5 (MFC, the API under Visual C++).  It
    contains custom widgets to allow applications to utilize multiple
    document interface (MDI), combo boxes, dynamically linked libraries
    (DLLs), dynamic data exchange (DDE), WinSock, and PostScript and
    PCL4 and PCL5 (Hewlett Packard's Printer Control Language)
    printing. You can use your MS Windows Help file source on Unix with
    Bristol's HyperHelp.  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.

    Their toolkit includes several programmer tools including Wind/U
    Spy (an application that runs under Motif but looks like the
    MS-Windows Spy program), online documentation, a makefile
    generation program (to help compile your MS-Windows program under
    Unix), and other tools to help prepare your PC source for Unix.

COMMENTS:
    Bristol has entered into a source code license agreement with
    Microsoft.  This agreement allows Bristol to incorporate MS-Windows
    code into their product.

FUTURE PLANS:
    HyperHelp V4.0 is also due out this summer and should include
    improved FrameMaker support, dynamic text retrieval, user
    reporting, improved printing and searching, and a bunch of other
    stuff.

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:
    WM_MOTIF User Interface Library, v4.1

VENDOR:
    Software UNO, Ltd.
    15 Bodwell Terrace     1259 Fernandez Juncos Ave.
    Millburn, NJ 07041     San Juan, PR 00907

    (800) 840-UNIX (840-8649) (voice)
    [phone]
    [phone] (fax)
    [phone] (BBS, 9600-1200, N-8-1)

    Email: [e-mail] (can also use the MAGMA forum)
           [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    WM_MOTIF is a portable implementation of the MS Windows API for
    Unix Motif and character-based environments.  It is a C library,
    but also supports popular C++ frameworks like Microsoft's MFC or
    Borland's OWL.  A resource compiler is included to port MS-Windows
    resources to the Unix platforms.  WM_MOTIF supports bitmaps, icons,
    and cursors; UIL is not required.

    Source code is available.

    Demo executables are available via anonymous FTP at
    ftp.uu.net:/vendor/uno.  Software UNO also offers an evaluation
    library to allow developers to compile their own code with the
    library.

FUTURE PLANS:
    "We are working on Win32 support for the first half of 1995. This
    will extend WM_MOTIF compatibility to applications developed for NT
    and Win32s platforms."


NAME:
    WNDX, V2.04

VENDOR:
    WNDX
    Suite 418, 1167 Kensington Crescent N.W.
    Calgary, Alberta Canada T2N 1X7

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

    Email: [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a C library which comes bundled with a resource builder
    (OPUS) capable of creating portable resource files.

    WNDX provides system-independent graphic drawing routines, window
    manipulation primitives, and user interaction management routines
    as well as dialogs, menus, editable and static text items,
    scrollbars, checkboxes, radio buttons, list items, selection items,
    icons, color selection items, icon and bitmap items.  Printing
    support is available for the DOS and Windows platforms (only).

    Programs generated with WNDX can be configured to use the native
    environment of the platform, or to be identical in appearance and
    behavior across all platforms.  This is accomplished by the use of
    different "style guides" (source included) which define the look
    and feel of the particular "style".  For example, a simple menu
    option can change the look and feel of the OPUS application running
    in Windows from the Windows style guide to the Motif style guide.

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).  WNDX describes it
    differently: The basis of the WNDX paradigm is the Window
    "object".  Each object has an attribute list.  Other "objects" are
    derived from the basic window object and each kind of object adds
    different customized attributes to the attribute list.

    There are some problems, like colors are not fully editable and
    there's no way to put a picture on a button (without fudging).
    Other complaints include features (like icons) that require special
    non-portable effort to use in a native look-and-feel.

    In addition to the platforms supported, a source code license is
    available for programmers who need to port applications to other
    UNIX/Motif platforms.  Contact WNDX for pricing.

FUTURE PLANS:
    The Mac platform is still on version 2.03.  The update is currently
    in progress.  The OS/2 platform port is currently on hold due to
    a lack of demand.


NAME:
    wxWindows, v1.60

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

    031 650 2746 (voice)

    Email: [e-mail]
    WWW: http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~jacs/wxwin.html

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a (free-of-charge) C++ library with source.  For a GUI
    builder, you can use wxBuilder (which is available under MS-Windows
    or Motif), another program they have to translate the output of
    DevGuide (Sun's XView GUI builder) into wxWindows format, or yet
    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 DDE support under MS-Windows *AND* Unix.  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/150k.  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.  They have a partial Mac port
    completed.


NAME:
    XVT Portability Toolkit
        Power++ Release 3.02,
        C Release 4.0

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

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

    Email: [e-mail]
    WWW:   http://www.xvt.com

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    XVT comes as either a C-language or C++ (called Power++) library.
    The C solution has bundled with it an interactive design tool and
    code generator.  The C++ solution includes a user interface layout
    tool (XVT-Architect 1.0?).  XVT provides printing support,
    drag-and-drop, portable help, portable bitmap support (palette
    control provides up to 24 bits of color), and powerful portable
    font handling capability.

    In addition, Power++ comes with the Rogue Wave product Tools.h++
    (Tools.h++ provides 135 extra general-purpose classes).

OPTIONS:
    Source Code                         (call)

    XVT-PowerObjects (includes
    spreadsheet, toolbar, status bar,
    tables, that sort of stuff)         $495 ($395 for PCs)

SUPPORT:
    Free (with updates) for six months.  After that, call for pricing.

COMMENTS:
    XVT is the original PIGUI software.  They seem to provide pretty
    solid support for all the platforms (and, there's a lot) that they
    support.  In addition, the current incarnation of their C++ toolset
    is generally agreed to be substantially better than their original
    entry.

    XVT is receiving major applause for changing their PIGUI approach
    to be more consistent with the rest of the marketplace.  They are
    getting away from a least-common denominator approach (check-out
    their portable help for an example of strides in this area) and
    they are providing more complete packages with fewer optional
    extras (e.g., XVT now bundles their layout tool with their
    products).

    XVT was founded in 1987.

FUTURE PLANS:
    They are expecting a new version of Design++'s (Power++ Architect)
    layout tool sometime soon (available around the end of the year).
    Internationalization (Unicode) 1st quarter 1995.

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).

    In the arena of software development, one user says "...at the end
    of 2 weeks we had a fully-functional [medium-sized] application on
    Mac and MOTIF", he goes on to say that the the user-interface was
    redesigned half way through.

    Their support is, reportedly, less than stellar.

    Power++ is said to be a fantastic improvement over their old C++
    product (Design++).


NAME:
    Yet Another Class Library

VENDOR:
    M. A. Sridhar
    Department of Computer Science
    University of South Carolina
    Columbia, SC 29208

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

    Email: [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    YACL is a free-of-charge general purpose C++ library that includes
    GUI functionality that adheres to the model-view-controller
    paradigm.  Classes provided by YACL include menus, dialogs,
    buttons, listboxes, cursors, fonts, pens, colors, and elementary
    drawing functions.  Motif functionality is not quite complete.

    The ultimate goal of YACL is to be a rich virtual platform that
    includes container classes and I/O classes as well as GUI
    functionality.

COMMENTS:
    YACL is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.scarolina.edu
    (129.252.131.11), as the file /pub/sridhar/yacl.zip.

FUTURE PLANS:
    The rest of the GUI functionality is being ported to Motif.  Versions
    are being considered for OS/2 and the Mac.  In addition, a GUI layout
    designer is currently under development.


NAME:
    zApp, V2.0

VENDOR:
    Inmark
    2065 Landings Drive,
    Mountainview, CA 94043

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

    Email: [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a full C++ class library.  This product contains over 200
    classes to provide things like DDE support (non-portable), printer
    support, geometry management, and true-type font support.  Included
    in their package is 75 pre-defined forms (as well as the usual
    examples) and source code for the class libraries.

    The software comes with zApp Programmer's Guide (330 pages) and
    zApp Programmer's Reference (833 pages).

OPTIONS:
    zApp Interface Pack, around 100 extra classes like a spreadsheet-
    oriented table class, 3-D toolbars, status lines, and 3-D custom
    controls.  This software comes with the zApp Interface Pack Guide
    (144 pages) and the zApp Interface Pack Reference (158 pages).

    zApp Factory, a drag-n-drop WYSIWYG builder that includes a code
    generator.  This software comes with the zApp Factory User's Guide
    (213 pages).

    The zApp Developer's Suite includes zApp, the zApp Interface Pack,
    and zApp Factory.  This software comes with the 'Getting Started
    with the Developer's Suite' manual (89 pages).

    zApp offers training, as well.


SUPPORT:
    Basic support is free.  There's also premium support (for extra
    bux) that includes product upgrades.

FUTURE PLANS:
    Mac support (last I heard was 1st Half 1995, but this product has
    been a long time comming).

    zApp (and the zApp Interface Pack) versions 2.2 are scheduled for
    release any minute now.  These releases should have full support
    for DLL's.  The X/Motif version of zApp is currently in limited
    release and will go into general release in early November.  zApp
    Factory will also be released on X/Motif in November.   Inmark is
    also working on a portable help product that will be released early
    next year.


COMMENTS:
    The zApp class libraries were originally coded in C++.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    The customer-interface is great.  Their BBS is said to provide a
    faster response than does CompuServe.

    zApp receives many plaudits.  Many users really like their class
    structure.  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."  Also revered is the zApp Factory
    tool.

    The most critical negative comment that I've seen is summed-up
    by one user "it has A LOT of memory leaks".

    Another big complaint seems to be that zApp is quite apparently
    MS-Windows-oriented.  Many of their classes and idioms don't
    translate well (or at all) to other platforms.  For example, one
    user says "my disappointment [with zApp] stems from my Mac
    expectations."  Another user agrees, "The [MS] Windows version
    works rather better than the OS/2 version".

    In order to do substantial work under MS-DOS Graphics mode, Inmark
    has told users to purchase MEWEL Library.  Another user
    corroborates: "To use zApp in [MS-DOS] Graphics mode you WILL need
    to buy MEWEL Professional [, and a memory extender such as]
    PharLap/286 or Borland PowerPacks".

    Other miscellaneous complaints include lack of DLL support, no
    portable help files, and zApp Factory regenerates all source code
    even when only one line is changed.


NAME:
    Zinc, V4.0

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

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

    Email: [e-mail]

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION:
    This is a full C++ class library that comes with the Zinc Designer
    (a WYSIWYG GUI builder).  Their classes include a rather nice error
    system, geometry management, print support, VROOM support (for
    Borland heads), index tabs, status bars, sliders, spinners, some
    graphic capabilities, 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.

    The software comes with 4 manuals.  These include 2 reference
    manuals, a getting started manual, and a document covering their
    designer.

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:
    Zinc's direction seems to be the international market along with
    support for the marketeers-do-the-GUI-while-programmers-do-the-code
    crowd.  That said, they promise that they'll not forget about the
    applications and scientific programmers as they grow.

    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).

    Zinc has made big changes to their Designer (their GUI builder)
    targeted, it seems, to provide a comfortable GUI design environment
    for non-programmers.  The updates 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.

    They have completely rewritten their manuals (and the crowd goes
    wild...) to reduce the learning curve associated with this
    product.

FUTURE PLANS:
    The utilization of the native help system and improved graphics
    support.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
    Users praise the look and feel under DOS.

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
    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:

    Steve Apiki, "Paths to Platform Independence", Byte, January
    1994, pp. 172-178

    Richard Chimera, [e-mail], "Evaluation of Platform
    Independent Interface Builders", Human-Computer Interaction
    Laboratory, University of Maryland, 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

    Scott Mace, "Windows-to-Mac bridge now open", InfoWorld, Nov. 7,
    1994, p21

--
Wade Guthrie                     | "Here's to way *WAY* too many MIPS, vintage
[e-mail]             | sports cars, AD&D (first edition), and
I don't speak for Rockwell.      | single malt whiskey aged in sherry casks."