X Windows Programming for Script Builders

X Windows Programming for Script Builders

Abstract:

From the original days of computing systems, there were various layers including hardware, firmware, kernel, and shell. As systems became more complex, access to the computer went from serial ports to desktop graphical consoles based upon proprietary windowing systems. Over time, X Windows became the standard environment for desktop UNIX systems. Some hybrid environments were created which combined the textual shell with graphical interfaces - one such environment is "dtksh".

Manuals:

Some of the best manuals available, for X Windows Desktop Korn shell programming are available from Oracle (formerly created by Sun Microsystems.)

• [html] Common Desktop Environment: Desktop KornShell User's Guide
• [html] Chapter 1 Introduction to Desktop KornShell
• [html] Chapter 2 A Sample Script
• [html] Chapter 3 Advanced Topics
• [html] Chapter 4 A Complex Script
• [html] Appendix A dtksh Commands
• [html] Appendix B dtksh Convenience Functions
• [html] Appendix C The script_find Script
• [html] Common Desktop Environment: Programmer's Overview
• [html] Common Desktop Environment: Programmer's Overview / Desktop Korn Shell (dtksh)

Solaris:

Since the advent of CDE, Solaris shipped "dtksh" and examples with their operating system. The following are examples on a Solaris 10 platform.

V240/user$ cd /usr/dt/share/examples/dtksh
V240/user$ ls -al
total 140
drwxr-xr-x 2 root bin 512 Jan 2 2010 .
drwxr-xr-x 20 root bin 512 Jan 2 2010 ..
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 2487 Dec 17 2004 CallbackTest2
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 4645 Dec 17 2004 CallDataTest4
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 10674 Dec 17 2004 crMovesText1
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 1736 Dec 17 2004 DtCursorTest2
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 5265 Dec 17 2004 DtWsTest1
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 6007 Dec 17 2004 EventHandlerTest
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 1870 Dec 17 2004 ListBounds1
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 2249 Dec 17 2004 ListItemPos1
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 1847 Dec 17 2004 ListPosSel1
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 1463 Dec 17 2004 PopupTest
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 1677 Dec 17 2004 SelBoxResTest
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 4097 Dec 17 2004 SessionTest
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 2865 Dec 17 2004 TextCutBuf1
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 2326 Dec 17 2004 TextDisp1
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 1829 Dec 17 2004 TextFXYPos1
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 2518 Dec 17 2004 TransEventTest
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 2168 Dec 17 2004 TransTest1
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 990 Dec 17 2004 WorkProcTest1
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root bin 4033 Dec 17 2004 XdrawTest

Other Examples:

Former Sun engineer Brendan Gregg includes a variety  of examples on his personal web page, regarding "dtksh".

Solaris 11 Express: Headless X

Solaris 11 Express: Headless X

Abstract:

Sun had marked it's market entry with a graphical UNIX workstation, bundling all functions needed in a desktop (from email, to instant message; from network usage, to user presence,; from compilers to graphical debuggers.) During the 1990's, it was not uncommon to take Sun workstations in headless configurations and install them in rack configurations, to spread the load of work across farms of computing facilities. During the transition from 1990's to early 2000's, Sun had taken on a role in the Data Center with the creation of rack mounted equipment featuring "lights out management" and abandoning the monitor. With the entry into 2010's, Sun's premier operating system moved to Solaris 11, which defaulted the installation of headless servers to exempt windowing system Windowing can be added to a headless system.

Software History:

Sun's Solaris suite of desktop applications originally was build upon a BSD kernel with a windowing system called SunView. MIT released the X Windows System, which was merged into the Solaris environment. With the merger of AT&T SVR4 into Solaris, OpenWindows with OpenLook became the standard. The merger of a competing X Windows based MOTIF with OpenWindows occurred via a cooperative trade group called COSE creating the Common Desktop Environment, which became the default Solaris windowing system. The latest version of default desktop environment of Solaris systems based upon X Windows GNOME is referred to a the Java Desktop System. Oracle later purchased Sun. The windowing system is installed by default on systems containing video cards, but can be installed separately from a text based install on a headless system, via the new Solaris 11 Image Packagng System.

Install X Clients:

The installation of new software under Solaris 11 is done via the "Imaging Packaging System", using the "pkg" command. The installation is done from the default Solaris 11 repository over the network:

V100-SolExp11:/root# pkg install slim_install
Refreshing catalog 1/1 solaris
Caching catalogs ...    
Caching catalogs ...    
Creating Plan -         
DOWNLOAD               PKGS       FILES    XFER (MB)
Completed           329/329 41226/41226  392.5/392.5

PHASE                                        ACTIONS
Install Phase                            65166/65166

PHASE                                          ITEMS
Package State Update Phase                   329/329
Image State Update Phase                         2/2

Finding X Clients:

The X Windows client applications used to be located in "/usr/openwin" for OpenWindows default applications and later in "/usr/dt" for CDE default applications. With the latest environment, X Windows applications are oddly installed in "/usr/bin".