# The Xlt Widget Set

The Xlt widget set is a group of larger and smaller utility widgets, authored by Rick Scott unless stated otherwise. In addition the Xlt library also suppplied a couple of convenience functions (and macros) to help with certain tasks while programming with the Motif API.

## Xlt widget list

These are the widgets currently available :

Widget Name | Widget Description
--- | ---
XltAnimatedButton | XltBubbleButton sub-class for displaying a sequence of Pixmaps, or XmStrings, as an animation.
XltAppShell | A drop-in replacement for Xt's applicationShell which makes supporting private colormaps and non-default visual a no-brainer.
XltBubbleButton | XmPushButton sub-class with tool-tips, bubble-help, annoying clutter on the screen, or what ever it's called these days.
XltEntrySB | A combination of an XmScale and XmTextField for numeric entry.
XltFilePicker | A combination XmLabel, XmTextField, and XltBubbleButton that pops up an XmFileSelectionDialog and displays the selection.
XltHost | An object sub-class that opens a TCP/IP stream and returns the data from the stream with callbacks.
XltNumEntry | An XmLabel, XmTextField and a couple of XmArrowButtons for numeric data entry. This has a built in calculator, so you can enter "4 * sin(PI)" as "4 * sin(PI)" instead of ".2192". It's pretty cool, if I do say so myself.
Strokes | The next thing in UI design, available here first! Beats "themes" hands down, this is actually useful!
XltDisplayFallbackResources | A function to print the compiled in FallBack resources to stderr in a resource file format.
XltDisplayOptions | A function to print the command line options to stderr.
XltHostTranscript | A function to create a dialog that displays all incoming data on a Host stream in an XmScrolledText widget.
XltRedirectStdErr | A function that captures stderr and displays it in a dialog.
XltSetClientIcon | A function to set the ApplicationShell iconPixmap and iconMask with the xpm data.
Sound | Easily add actions and resources to play sound files.
XltToolBarAddItem | A function that makes it easy to add XltBubbleButtons that display xpm icons to an XmRowColumn, for use as a tool bar.
XltWorking | Pops up a dialog that displays the percentage of a task complete without having to convert the task to a WorkProc, and without having to worry about un-managing the dialog before it is actually mapped.
XltYesNo | An "in-line" dialog for simple questions.
SciPlot Widget (by Rob McMullen) | A widget capable of plotting cartesian or polar graphs, including logarithmic axes in cartesian plots. Professional quality 2D graphs for free !
ListTree widget (also by Rob McMullen) | A small list widget capable of displaying lists of text strings (with an optional pixmap) in a hierarchal directory list sort of format.
FontChooser (by Danny Backx) | A widget which allows a user to select a font based on its XLFD name.
XltSelectionBox | Widget just like the XmSelectionBox except that the list scrolls to the closest match in the list as text is typed in the TextField

## Xlt functions/macros

The man page for Xlt gives an overview about the convenience function which are provided. Note that the documentation is still work in progress and not yet complete.

## Some remarks

The Xlt widget set is part of the LessTif distributions, but installing it is optional.

Xlt widgets are not an implementation of some OSF/Motif® API.

As such, their use in your applications is at your discretion (and totally free as in free speech and free beer), but beware that your application will only port to an environment with a commercial Motif implementation if you also provide the Xlt library.