Hi all,
I didn't publish anything on our (ICS's) efforts on Embedded Open Motif on
this this email list because it seemed off topic. But I can understand how
the announcement might be confusing and so relevant to your efforts. So let
me provide some more information.
First of all (and probably most importantly), there has been *no change* in
the Open Group license for Open Motif. It is the same one that it was
originally released under and so not an open source license (it is basically
the IBM license with the additional restriction that you can not use Open
Motif on non-open sourced systems). This is unfortunate, as it prevents the
community of developers supporting the Motif API from uniting into a
stronger force. We (ICS) don't like it, but are powerless to get it changed.
Hence, all the reasons this group continues to enhance and improve lesstif
are still valid.
Our primary efforts were to take the current release of Open Motif
(2.1.30-5) and optimize it for embedded systems/handhelds that run Linux. We
chose to support two PDA's initially:
- Compaq iPAQ (we used a Netwinder as a development machine)
- Agenda VR3
The "optimization" to date consists primarily of removing functions that
*we* judged as being inappropriate for a small screen or obsolete. Nothing
magical here, we probably got some things wrong, but it is a start.
Specifically, we removed:
- X pixmap library (already loaded by other software)
- Widgets/Gadgets: Container, Notebook, Icon
- Functions: GrabShell, Text Properties, Xm String Segmentation, New
Translation functions
- Obsolete Functions: See contents of files Obso1_2, ObsoStr, ObsoXme,
Obso2_0.
I suspect that if we thought about it, we would remove more. For example, I
am not sure of the purpose of the Form in any environment that that does not
allow window resizing. But since the Form is fundamental to many existing
Motif applications, we left it in. We certainly would be interested in
suggestions of other functions we could remove.
We also cleaned up some references in Xt that pulled in libraries that were
irrelevant for a Motif based application.
With Xt, and using the Netwinder compilers (the native iPAQ compilers would
buy us another 10-15% space savings since they target a newer version of the
ARM chip), we top out at just under 1.8mb for the shared libraries (not
including the Keith Packards tiny X server).
The project page for this work is on the MotifZone at:
http://www.motifzone.net/projects/?group_id=16
Obviously, this is something that could be done with lesstif too! As I
recall, the last time I asked the question, lesstif was slightly smaller
than Motif? (Open Motif is basically at 1.5mb on an ARM (RISC) chip, smaller
on CISC type systems(i.e., Intel x86)).
We believe that Motif (either Embedded Open Motif or lesstif) has advantages
over GTK+ and Embedded QT.
Specifically:
GTK+: Approximately the same size (Motif is slightly smaller, but this will
change depending on system and compiler). Embedded Motif offers a time
tested toolkit, industry standard that also supports legacy applications
that might migrate to PDAs/Embedded systems. Licensing is approximately the
same (Both allow proprietary source code to remain proprietary). Obviously,
lesstif provides the advantage of a fully open source library that also
allows the migration of existing Motif applications.
Embedded QT: The commercial version of Embedded QT has runtimes and other
development fees. If you want to keep your source code proprietary, you have
to pay these fees. The GPL version of Embedded QT might require a developer
to release his/her proprietary source code. Embedded Open Motif has no
runtime fees, no development kit fees, and you can release your source code
or keep it proprietary depending on a company's business model. (Note that
the open source version of Embedded QT is under GPL and not LGPL. This could
be problematical for developers that want to keep their proprietary source
proprietary. Lesstif potentially provides the same advantage as Embedded
Open Motif since it is licensed under the LGPL.
We also have a project underway on the MotifZone to build open source Motif
PDA type applications. These applications are released under the GPL. Since
they are released under a real open source license (with a specific waiver
for linking against Open Motif), there evolution might be of interest to
members of this group. The project is called "Useable" and its home page is
at: http://www.motifzone.net/useable/
So what's in it for ICS?
We did the work for two reasons:
a. Additional product sales of our Motif GUI builder (BX PRO).
b. Consulting/services contracts with hardware vendors and end users to
support Embedded Open Motif on their platforms. (Cygnus model)
I think that this is the relevant info. I'll be glad to answer additional
questions either privately or publicly.
Regards,
Mark
----- Original Message -----
From: "Danny Backx" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "LessTif Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 2:48 PM
Subject: [Fwd: Announcement: Embedded Open Motif]
> Some of you may have seen this on comp.windows.x.motif.
>
> I am very curious as to what this is.
>
> Danny
> --
> Danny Backx ([EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED])
> Home page : http://users.skynet.be/danny.backx
> Projects: LessTif (http://www.lesstif.org)
> Oleo (http://www.gnu.org/software/oleo/oleo.html)
