From: ward@bruno.EBay.Sun.COM () Subject: Re: ObjectBuilder & OI for Linux giveaway at X Date: 12 Jun 1993 23:17:07 GMT
In article fdf403sdd31i00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com, ikluft@uts.amdahl.com (Ian Kluft) writes:
> ParcPlace Systems was giving away free copies of ObjectBuilder for Linux at
> their booth at Xhibition '93 (at the San Jose Convention Center.) It seems
> pretty obvious to me that a purpose of the giveaway was to get people to talk
> about it on the newsgroup. Since this is good software (I already use it at
> work) I can go along with that...
Thanks for the heads up! I managed to get over to Xhibition in time to actually
get a copy of it! I must admit their plan worked..
>
> For anyone who hasn't seen the articles about this already, ObjectBuilder is
> a GUI builder for C++ which allows your applications to be both Motif and
> OpenLook. (You can pick which look-and-feel you want in your .Xresources
> file.) It also comes with the Object Interface (OI) C++ library.
You can also choose the look and feel at runtime '-motif' or '-openwin', and since
the toolkit was not written with any OSF code, but was instead a complete rewrite
from the ground up, there are no royalties on distribution! This is a really great
opportunity for the linux community! Although ObjectBuilder is not shareware, it
does allow for people to write public domain apps with it! The system is *very*
complete and robust, and tends to get really good reviews and presents the possibility
for the pd community to write apps which are commercially viable as well as pd viable.
>
> BTW, the ObjectBuilder demo system at their Xhibition booth was running Linux.
> They said that several people saw the demo, got a copy of Object Builder, and
> said something about installing Linux on their system at home.
Yeah I just became one of them! I was able to write a openwin/motif floppy mounter
and dismounter for myself last night in a few hours. UIB/OI is very cool software!
>
> I haven't installed it yet. (I just got back in the office from Xhibition.)
> I'll probably wait until I have the recommended 16MB RAM before trying. But
> it looks like it's upgrade time so that won't be a long wait.
On that note, I'll make a few personal observations since I did install it.
First of all they weren't kidding about the recommended 16MB of ram! I have a
386DX25 with 8MB ram 9MB swap, and although a lot of operations are very acceptable
in performance, a lot are not! Anything even halfway complex really bogs down the
performance. I witnessed it running on a 486DX2-66 which I'm sure had at least 16MB
of ram, and it looked very quick. The programs take a long time to compile, and
the binaries are *very* large (my simple mounter was 2.6MB unstripped and 1.9MB
stripped. This is due to the applications being statically linked with the OI
libraries, and also to the fact that C++ can be a *really* slow language to compile.
In order to compile and not feel like my disk was going to churn out of my computer,
I had to exit X-windows, but then it compiled in a reasonable time, and I had an
openwin and motif app in the same binary!
The system does come with online help and man pages, but I would highly
recommend the two guides on OI and the Object builder which prentice hall sells
separately! The books are ~50 total after the coupons you receive from parcplace,
and will pay for themselves very quickly. This is a $3000 package guys, grab it
if you can! If my recommentation is not enough, check out the July issue of
UNIXWORLD, it is reviewed along with the rest of the objectworks toolkit.
If you are interested in getting a copy from ParcPlace, their email address is
builder@Boulder.ParcPlace.COM
I don't know if they are continuing the promotion, but it is worth a try!
Happy hunting everyone!
ward