X Toolkit Intrinsics is a library

Library (computer science)

In computer science, a library is a collection of resources used to develop software. These may include pre-written code and subroutines, classes, values or type specifications....

 used in the X Window System

X Window System

The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...

. More precisely, it is a library that uses the low-level Xlib

Xlib

Xlib is an X Window System protocol client library written in the C programming language. It contains functions for interacting with an X server. These functions allow programmers to write programs without knowing the details of the protocol...

 library and provides a friendly (object-oriented-looking) API to develop X11 software with graphical widgets. It can be used in the C

C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....

 or C++

C++

C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...

 languages.

The low level Xlib library provides functions for interacting with an X11 server

Server (computing)

In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...

, but does not provide any function for implementing the graphical objects used in GUI

Gui

Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...

s, such as buttons, menus, etc. Such objects are called widgets

Widget (computing)

In computer programming, a widget is an element of a graphical user interface that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or a text box. The defining characteristic of a widget is to provide a single interaction point for the direct manipulation of a given...

. The Xt library provides support for creating and using widget types, but does not provide any specific widget. Specific widgets are implemented by other libraries using Xt, such as Xaw

Xaw

Xaw is short for the X Window System Athena widget set, which is a set of widgets to implement simple user interfaces based upon the X Toolkit Intrinsics...

 and Motif

Motif (widget toolkit)

In computing, Motif refers to both a graphical user interface specification and the widget toolkit for building applications that follow that specification under the X Window System on Unix and other POSIX-compliant systems. It emerged in the 1980s as Unix workstations were on the rise, as a...

.

A programmer can for example use the Xt library to create and use a new widget type such as a two-side button. Since applications typically require a number of standard widgets such as buttons, menus, etc., they usually rely on a library such as Xaw

Xaw

Xaw is short for the X Window System Athena widget set, which is a set of widgets to implement simple user interfaces based upon the X Toolkit Intrinsics...

 and Motif

Motif (widget toolkit)

In computing, Motif refers to both a graphical user interface specification and the widget toolkit for building applications that follow that specification under the X Window System on Unix and other POSIX-compliant systems. It emerged in the 1980s as Unix workstations were on the rise, as a...

 that provides such widgets, rather than implementing them directly using Xt.

Most modern toolkits such as FLTK

FLTK

FLTK is a cross-platform GUI library developed by Bill Spitzak and others. Made with 3D graphics programming in mind, it has an interface to OpenGL, but it is also suitable for general GUI programming....

, GTK

GTK+

GTK+ is a cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU LGPL, allowing both free and proprietary software to use it. It is one of the most popular toolkits for the X Window System, along with Qt.The name GTK+ originates from GTK;...

, and Qt

Qt (toolkit)

Qt is a cross-platform application framework that is widely used for developing application software with a graphical user interface , and also used for developing non-GUI programs such as command-line tools and consoles for servers...

do not use the Xt library, preferring to use Xlib directly.

External links

• X Toolkit Intrinsics - C Language Interface
• The place of Intrinsics in X11
• TestXt2, Example C program that creates a Menu Bar using just Xt/Xaw
• http://www.darwinsys.com/training/xview-course.html
• http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=62402.62407