This chapter contains these sections:
“About the Indigo Magic Look and Feel” briefly explains the basics of the Indigo Magic look and feel and tells you where to find more detailed information.
“Getting the Right Look and Feel: The Basic Steps” briefly lists the basic steps for getting the right look and feel and tells you which chapter covers each step.
One of the most important things you can do to integrate your application into the Indigo Magic Desktop environment is to get the right look and feel. This look and feel is largely based on IRIS IM, the Silicon Graphics port of the industry-standard OSF/Motif™ toolkit. In particular, the look and feel is based on an enhanced version of IRIS IM and on the 4Dwm window manager (the Silicon Graphics mwm-based window manager). The Indigo Magic User Interface Guidelines explains the differences between the Indigo Magic look and feel and the OSF/Motif look and feel.
Users have certain expectations of how applications appear and behave in the Indigo Magic Desktop environment, and by meeting these expectations, you make your application much easier and more pleasant to use. The chapters in this part of the manual explain how to set up your application to provide the Indigo Magic look and feel.
Here are the basic steps for providing the right look and feel for your application:
Recompile with IRIS IM version 1.2. If your application uses an earlier version of IRIS IM, recompile to make sure that it runs correctly with version 1.2. Refer to the IRIS IM 1.2 Release Notes for information on the differences between version 1.2 and earlier versions of IRIS IM.
Use the Indigo Magic enhanced appearance. Turn on the Indigo Magic “look,” which enhances the appearance of standard IRIS IM widgets and gadgets. See Chapter 2, “Getting the Indigo Magic Look,” for instructions.
Use schemes. The schemes mechanism is a simple method for providing user-selectable default colors and fonts for your application. For more information on Schemes, see Chapter 3, “Using Schemes.”
Use the new and extended widgets (optional). Silicon Graphics provides some new IRIS IM widgets, extensions of some existing widgets, and some mixed-model programming widgets (for use with IRIS GL and OpenGL). For more information, see Chapter 4, “Using the New and Enhanced Widgets.”
Set resources for correct window, session, and desks management. By setting a few important resources, you insure that your application includes the windowing, session management, and desks features that users expect. For instructions, refer to Chapter 5, “Window, Session, and Desk Management.”
Customize minimize icons. Silicon Graphics provides tools that allow you to easily provide your own look for minimize icons (icons for minimized windows). The tools for creating minimized windows are discussed in Chapter 6, “Customizing Your Application's Minimized Windows.”
Implement interapplication data exchange. Interapplication data exchange lets users cut and paste information between you application and other applications. For more information, see Chapter 7, “Interapplication Data Exchange.”.
Monitor changes to the filesystem (optional). Silicon Graphics provides a File Alteration Monitor (FAM) that your application can use to monitor the filesystem. Chapter 8, “Monitoring Changes to Files and Directories,” explains how to use FAM.
Provide online help. Silicon Graphics provides an online help system for integrating help with your application. Chapter 9, “Providing Online Help With SGIHelp,” describes how to use the online help system.