Writing an Application Program

Writing an Application Program

The IRIS Developer's Option (IDO) is required for writing applications that run on Silicon Graphics platforms. This option provides the basic software and documentation for the development environment. "The IRIS Developer's Option" tells you more about the IDO.

When you write an application for a Silicon Graphics platform, you can choose from a number of languages, toolkits, and libraries supplied by Silicon Graphics for developers. Your choice depends on the nature of your application and, to some degree, on your personal preference. Here are some choices you can make and the options available under IRIX:

A programming language. Choose a language that is best suited for your application. Silicon Graphics provides compilers for C, C++, Fortran, Pascal, and Ada®. If your application runs on a multiprocessing platform and performance is a key consideration, you may want to choose either Power C or POWER Fortran, the versions of C and Fortran with special support for multiprocessing.
A graphical user interface. If you plan to incorporate a graphical user interface in your application, you can use one of the user interface toolkits provided by Silicon Graphics rather than writing your own. These toolkits are IRIS ViewKit(TM) and IRIS IM, which is Silicon Graphics' port of the industry-standard OSF/Motif. They allow you to build an interface for your application that looks like the interfaces of other applications running in the Indigo Magic desktop environment.
Software development tools. When you order the IDO, you receive tools for compiling, debugging, and tuning your application. These tools include the compiler driver, the dbx debugger, and several performance tuning tools. You can also order the CASEVision WorkShop, which provides several interactive, graphical tools for debugging and tuning your application. If your project is large, you may need configuration management and version control. You can use the CASEVision(TM)/Tracker and CASEVision/ClearCase tools for these tasks.
An application library. You may want to use one of the application libraries developed by Silicon Graphics. These libraries provide tools for developers of 3D graphics, image processing, digital media, and printer/scanner management applications.

Figure 1-2 shows, in a hierarchical arrangement, the components you can select.

Figure 1-2 : Component Hierarchy of an IRIX Application Program Now that you have an overview of the IRIX programming environment, you're ready to learn more about the tools and libraries available and the documentation Silicon Graphics provides for reading about them. Chapter 2 lists the IRIX programming documentation. Chapters 3 through 6 describe IRIX compilers, tools, and application libraries in greater detail.