Faced with the choice of adopting one or other or some combination of two graphical user interfaces, Open Look and Motif, whose respective proponents are engaged in mortal combat, the X/Open Group’s flow of oil – which it has been pouring on the troubled waters for some months now – seems to have run dry, bringing the selection process to a grinding halt. In getting both Unix International Inc and the Open Software Foundation into its stable a few months back, the group finally brought these horses to water – but now it can’t get them to drink. X/Open’s interface selection meeting culminated in a stand-off, but it has now emerged that agreement was reached, but only in part, at the lower levels of definition, on the adoption X Window 11 version 4 as a standard, and on up to the level of intrinsics. On the application programming interface – API – the toolkit that will reinforce the look and feel of the interface, there is reported to be less agreement, and as X/Open is not a developer there is now no question that it might choose to configure its own. The Unix camps then are divided along both political and technical lines. The issue hinges on the style guide – on how the screen and windows will behave – and a merger of Open Look and Motif would require some compromise from both sides, and one application programming interface for both is proving too difficult to develop. The result of such a development would be that the interface would look like one or the other – or unlike both – a compromise it seems neither side is prepared to countenance at present. Open Look in its present guise has three application programming interfaces, one for each of the versions available, one style guide and one desktop manager. Motif has an programming interface and style guide but no desktop manager, which is left up to developers to buy in or design. The two leaders on the market are the much in the news X.desktop from IXI Ltd, and Looking Glass from Visix Software Inc. At the moment it is being left up to the two camps to see if they can thrash out some sort of arrangement betweem them, and a some sort of resolution is reported likely over the next two months. Although even in X/Open’s judgement the camps are going to have to reach some decision, the process as X/Open euphemistically reports, is taking overly long. Not wanting to alienate either of the groups, X/Open is now casting around in other directions for inspiration, to the IEEE for instance – which held an informal meeting of its windowing and interface committee last week – always maintaining that it is quite prepared to support and adopt other standards if and when they emerge. To some degree this move must have been provoked by reports coming from all quarters which suggest that users are tired of the wrangling, and want a decision one way or the other rather than no decision at all. Moreover independent software vendors are clamouring even more for action so that they can get on with the business of developing applications.
IEEE meeting
The informal IEEE meeting, which included representatives from Unix International, the Open Software Foundation and AT&T, decided that developing a widget set for an application programming interface supporting both Motif and Open Look would be a viable approach. This paves the way for a formal meeting of the IEEE windowing committee in Brussels this month, which will choose, then design and draft a standard based on the MIT X Windowing toolset. X/Open will now meet to consider its response, but sources suggest there is a strong possibility the group will adopt a similar approach, at last resolving the choice of a graphical user interface standard, and defusing the squabbling within its own ranks.
