The IRIX operating system is Silicon Graphics' implementation of the UNIX operating system. All application programs written for Silicon Graphics platforms run in the IRIX environment. Writing an application with a graphical user interface that runs on Silicon Graphics platforms requires the IRIX operating system, a compiler for your source code, tools to build your user interface, tools to debug and tune your program, and typically one or more application libraries. This guide describes the software Silicon Graphics provides to perform these tasks.
Figure i illustrates the relationship between Silicon Graphics software, your application, and your user. In this example, an application uses one of the application libraries, Open Inventor, to create an image and display it on the monitor.
Figure i : Building an Application with Silicon Graphics Software