Fundamentals of X Programming

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Introduction

   Pages 1-23

3. Fundamentals of the X Window System

   Pages 25-58

4. Introduction to the X Toolkit

   Pages 59-93

5. Event Handling in the X Toolkit

   Pages 95-134

6. Programming with Widgets

   Pages 135-172

7. Constraint and Compound Widgets

   Pages 173-196

8. Text and Dialog Widgets

   Pages 197-213

9. Drawing Operations

   Pages 215-248

10. Color and Images

    Pages 249-279

11. Selections

    Pages 281-301

12. Writing Widgets

    Pages 303-331

13. Examples of Widget Implementation

    Pages 333-358

14. Back Matter

    Pages 359-374

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This book provides an overview of the X Window System focusing on characteristics that have significant impact on the development of both application programs and widgets. We pay special attention to applications that go beyond graphical user interfaces (GUIs); therefore we discuss issues affecting video games, visualization and imaging programs, and designing widgets with a complex appearance. While the book does not assume previous knowledge of X, it is intended for experienced programmers, especially those who want to write programs that go beyond simple GUIs. X is the dominant window system under Unix, and X servers are available for Microsoft Windows, thus enabling graphics over a network in the PC world. While Java offers an apparently universal graphics library (the abstract window toolkit), the reality is quite different: For high-quality graphics and image display, we must program on the target platform itself (X or one of Microsoft’s APIs) rather than rely on Java peer objects. X is a vast subject, so it is impossible to provide a complete coverage in a few hundred pages. Thus we selected topics that are fundamental to the system, so that the reader who masters them should be able to read the documentation of the numerous libraries and toolkits. Therefore we provide documentation on the most important Xlib and X toolkit functions only.

• Graphical User Interface
• Interface
• User Interfaces
• Windows
• constraint
• imaging
• programming
• selection
• user interface
• visualization

• State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook

  Theo Pavlidis

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