The X Windows system

The "class library" in the X windows system provides a collection of widgets that can be used to build applications.

Sizing and placement of these widgets is controlled by a geometry manager. widgets do not even appear on the screen unless they are controlled by a geometry manager. On the Suns in B/L 244 the default geometry manger is ovlm (overlay window manager). Other managers are available.

Here is the "Hello World" program written for X. (In ANSI C)

#include 

#include

#define HELLO "hello world"



main(int argc, char **argv)

{

	Display *display;  // X server connection

	Window *win;       //  Window ID

         GC  gc;                // Grpahics context

         int bw = 2 		// Border width

         int bc = BlackPixel;  // Border color

         int bgc = WhitePixel;  // Window background color

         XSizeHints   hints;     // Window sizing hints

         XEvent  event;            // Event data Structure

	// Open the display

	display = XOpenDisplay(NULL);

	// Set hints for window size and position

	hints.x = 200; hints.y = 200;

	hints.width=300; hints.height=200;

	hints.flags= PPosition| PSize;

	// Create the window

	win = XCreateSimpleWindow(display,

		   DefaultRootWindow(display), hints.x, hints.y,

                     hints.width, hints.heigth, bw, bc, bgc);

         XSetStandardProperties(display, win, HELLO, HELLO, 

                      argv, argc, &hints);

	// Create a grpahics context for writing the text

	gc = XCreateGC(dispaly, win, NULL, NULL);

	// Specify events of interest (only exposure)

	XSelectInput(display, win, ExposureMask);

	XMapWindow(display, win);  // Show the window

	// Event loop

	while (TRUE) {

	   XNextEvent(display, &event);

	   // Discard all but the most recent expose event

	   if (event.type == Expose && event.xexpose.count == 0){

               int x, y;

               while (XCheckTypedEvent(display, Expose, &Event));

               XClearWindow(display, win);

               //********  Print "hello world" !! ******

               XDrawImageString(display, win, gc, 50, 50

                           HELLO, strlen(HELLO));

            }  //End if

        }  // end while

        exit(0);

        }

Two Outlines of X programs

An Xlib program xclk
An Xt (Athena) program

Return to GUI home page.

Last Changed: 2 July 1995