Volume 6A: Motif Programming Manual

and place the MessageBox in it or use a Motif convenience routine that creates both the shell and its dialog widget

child.

The Motif toolkit uses the DialogShell widget class as the parent for all of the predefined Motif dialogs. In this

context, a MessageBox widget combined with a DialogShell widget creates what the Motif toolkit calls a

MessageDialog. A careful look at terminology can help you to distinguish between actual widget class and Motif

compound objects. The name of the actual widget class ends in Box, while the name of the compound object made up

of the widget and a DialogShell ends in Dialog. For example, the convenience routine XmCreateMessageBox()

creates a MessageBox widget, which you need to place inside of a DialogShell yourself. Alternatively,

XmCreateMessageDialog() creates a MessageDialog composed of a MessageBox and a DialogShell.

Another point about terminology involves the commonly−used term dialog box. When we say dialog box, we are

referring to a compound object composed of a DialogShell and a dialog widget, not the dialog widget alone. This

terminology can be confusing, since the Motif toolkit also provides widget classes that end in box.

One subtlety in the use of MessageBox and SelectionBox widgets is that certain types of behavior depend on whether

or not the widget is a direct child of a DialogShell. For example, the Motif Style Guide says that clicking on the OK

button in the action area of a MessageDialog invokes the action of the dialog and then dismisses ...