Volume 6A: Motif Programming Manual

compiler writes out a user interface description (UID) file for each UIL source file. A UID file is analogous to

an object file in a programming language; it contains a binary description of the interface which is read by

Mrm.

Create the user interface at run−time with Mrm. After making the standard Xt initialization calls, an

application only needs to make a few calls to Mrm to create and display the interface. Mrm handles nearly all

of the work of creating an interface by calling routines in the Xm, Xt, and X libraries.

•

the figure illustrates how UIL and Mrm fit in with your application and the Xm, Xt, and X libraries.

User interface creation with UIL and Mrm

23.1.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of UIL

Before you decide whether or not to use UIL in an application, consider the advantages and disadvantages of the

language. The next two sections discuss the arguments for and against using UIL. UIL provides a relatively simple

syntax for specifying a user interface in terms of a widget hierarchy. Both novice and experienced Motif programmers

can quickly learn the UIL syntax. In contrast, it is more difficult and time consuming to learn all of the Motif and Xt

function calls needed to create an interface in code. In addition, since a UIL module is only a static interface

description, it is not subject to the ordering constraints of widget creation that typically affect the layout of

programmatically−created ...