Volume 7A: XView Programming Manual

1

XView and the X Window System

The XView Toolkit allows a programmer to build the interface to an application without hav-

ing to learn many of the details of the underlying windowing system. However, it is valuable

to have some understanding of X before attempting to build applications under XView. This

chapter introduces many of the most important concepts on which the X Window System is

based and describes the computing environment for X applications. It also describes the role

of the XView Toolkit in the X Window System.

For the most part, this chapter assumes that you are new to programming the X Window Sys-

tem. This chapter describes the basics of the X Window System—further details will be

described as necessary later in the manual. However, this book does not repeat the detailed

description of Xlib programming found in Volume One, Xlib Programming Manual. If you

already have some experience programming the X Window System, you might wish to begin

at Chapter 2, The XView Programmer’s Model.

1.1 The X Window System

X controls a bit-mapped display in which every pixel (dot on the screen) is individually con-

trollable. This allows drawing of pictures in addition to text. Until recently, individual con-

trol of screen pixels was widely available only on personal computers (PCs) and high-priced

technical workstations, while more general-purpose machines were limited to output on text-

only ...