22)* What books should I read or do I need to program using Motif?

[Last modified: April 93]

Answer: Ken Lee of the DEC Western Software Laboratory (klee@wsl.dec.com)
regularly posts to comp.windows.x and ba.windows.x a list of reference books
and articles on X and X programming.  In FAQ comp.windows.x an extract of his
list appears. Specifically for Motif programming, though:

OSF/Motif Programmers Guide, Prentice-Hall ISBN 13-640525-8 (Motif 1.0), ISBN
0-13-640681-5 (Motif 1.1), ISBN 0-13-643107-0 (Motif 1.2) (NB: This makes use
of the demo programs that you get with a Motif source license.  The programs
are not included and may or may not be available on your system.)

OSF/Motif Programmers Reference Manual, Prentice-Hall ISBN 13-640517-17 (Motif
1.0),
 ISBN 0-13-640616-5 (Motif 1.1), ISBN 0-13-643115-1 (Motif 1.2) You will need
this for the system calls.

OSF/Motif Style Guide, Prentice-Hall 13-640491-X (Motif 1.0), ISBN 0-13-
640673-4 (Motif 1.1), ISBN 13-643123-2 (Motif 1.2) You will need this to get
some idea of how to write programs with the correct `look and feel'.

You should read at least one of the the non-OSF books on Motif:

Sebern, Mark "Building OSF/Motif Applications: A Practical Introduction". The
ISBN is 0-13-122409-3. Prentice-Hall.

The book uses a large, realistic Motif application (a program to make slides
for presentations) to demonstrate the use of Motif features. Both UIL and
toolkit calls are discussed, though UIL is featured, both in the examples and
in a reference chapter.

Young, Doug. "The X Window System: Applications and Programming with Xt (Motif
Version)," Prentice Hall, 1989 (ISBN 0-13-497074-8). The excellent tutorial "X
Window Systems Programming and Applications with Xt," (ISBN 0-13-972167-3)
updated for Motif.

Marshall Brain at brain@adm.csc.ncsu.edu posted a set of simple and useful
Motif tutorials.

Berlage, Thomas Berlage, OSF/Motif: Concepts and Programming, Addison-Wesley,
UK, 1991. ISBN 0-201-55792-4.

Johnson, Eric F. and Kevin Reichard, Power Programming Motif, MIS: Press,
Portland, OR, 1991. ISBN 1-55828-059-6. Book with disk, ISBN 1-55828-061-8.

Ferguson, Paula M, The Motif Reference Manual, Volume 6B of the O'Reilly
series on X.  This is the new volume of a two volume set on Motif programming.
ISBN 1-56592-038-4 (Motif 1.2)  (Volume 6A is expected to ship soon)

Barkakati, Nabajyoti, X Window System Programming, SAMS. ISBN 0-672-22750-9.
This contains a section on Motif.

Smith, Jerry, Designing X Clients with Xt/Motif, ISBN 1-55860-255-0 Morgan
Kaufmann Publishers This adopts a higher-level approach to many of the objects
that commonly occur in Motif but are not in the Motif API.


Newmarch, Jan, The X Window System and Motif - A Fast Track Approach.
Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-53931-4.

You will also need books and references on Xt such as:

Asente, Paul J., and Swick, Ralph R., "X Window System Toolkit, The Complete
Programmer's Guide and Specification", Digital Press, 1990.  The bible on Xt.
A treasury of information, excellent and invaluable.  Distributed by Digital
Press, ISBN 1-55558-051-3, order number EY-E757E-DP; and by Prentice- Hall,
ISBN 0-13-972191-6.

Nye, Adrian, and Tim O'Reilly, "X Toolkit Programming Manual, Volume 4,"
O'Reilly and Associates, 1989. The folks at O'Reilly give their comprehensive
treatment to programming with the MIT Intrinsics; R4 versions are now
available, as is a Motif 1.1 version (Volume 4M).

Dan Heller's version of the Motif Programming Manual is still a widely used
and useful book. It is being replaced by Volume 6a and 6b but is a very useful
resource. Volume 6, Oreilly and Associates, Motif Edition.

Flanagan, David, ed.,  "X Toolkit Reference Manual, Volume 5," O'Reilly and
Associates, 1992a, Third Edition. A professional reference manual for the MIT
X11R4 and X11R5 Xt.

Books and reference manuals on Xlib may also be useful.

If you want to learn about UIL, look in the Motif Programmers's Guide.  This
seems to be the only information.