Motif Style Gui

[johnm-at-slmd.com]

Ok, I finally got around to coding up my Motif GUI:

Reorganization is screaming out at me, but I don't want to change the
operation:

Following Motif style-guide rules: Please comment on anything I
should/should not proceed with

-----------------------------Top level Menu Pulldowns ---------------------
Issue #1:
Normally, the "File" Menu-pulldown has "New, Open, Save, Save As, and Quit"
The xemc has "Open, Edit, Reset, Quit"  -- Both "Edit" and "Reset" are not
"File" functions.
Logging also is a "File" operation (after SaveAs, before Quit, with
separators).

If the operation of the GUI is to allow editing of the Openned file, then
"Save" and "Save As" make sense.
"New" would make sense if one might start from scratch.

Issue #2:
The second Menu-pulldown normally is "Edit", where items such as "Tools,
Offsets & Variables, Calibration (axis 0,1,2)"
would best fit. Rather than having to select an axis via mouse to affect
the Calibration, the Calibration menu can have
sub-menus for all the Axis.

Then there would be "View", but under this pulldown menu, editable popups
would not show up: "Diagnostics(axis 0,1,2)"

Issue #3
Settings and then the display of the settings can better be done with a
single pulldown-button. This is true for Coordinates,
Position.

Issue #4
Limit Override isn't a Menu pulldown and thus doesn't belong here. Also,
Help goes to the far right.

----------------------------- General GUI standards -----------------------
Issue #5
All Items not available at a given time should be dimmed out (as is done
for the bottom Open, Run, ... buttons and
other places, but is missing in Limit Override for instance).

Issue #6
Buttons that have more than one value are pulldown-buttons  (a button with
a small rectangle on the right of the text).
To avoid the confusion of whether a button is to be pressed to get the
effect displayed or if the button is showing the
status of the button, a standard to solve this can be to showing both
states with the selected one marked
 (depressed or highlighted or check-marked or to use Pulldown-buttons that
traditionally show selected status and
implicitly indicate that there are other choices not currently selected.

Illustration:  the "ON" button means that the status is "ON" and not a
button to turn the machine on; however, "ABORT"
has the opposite meaning where pressing it achieves the action. By making
the "ON" button a pulldown-button and
the "ABORT" a normal button, we clarify its operation.

Issue #7
Related items organized together are outlined in a box with a title.
Example: The text editor where G-codes can be entered might have: "Enter
G-code:" in front.

Issue #8
Status text should not look like a button. E.g., Logging has a three status
fields that aren't buttons, but look like ones.

-------------------------------------- Other ----------------------

Issue #9
"Open.." is both a button and a pull-down menu (and has "O" as an
accelerator). Do we really need a second one here?
Maybe we don't need the one in File?

Issue #10
Colored Pixmaps for buttons make the GUI attractive (Making the E-Stop
button a round Red 3-D looking button is do-able.

Issue #11
Many non-standard GUI features are in xemc: touching Axis Speed pops up a
text widget. I like it however, but it assumes
mouse and keyboard present (touch-screen without keyboard would be
problematic with this one).
-------------------

Commentary welcome.

Alternatively, I can just make everything work exactly as it is, but use
some Motif 3-D look and feel enhancements.
If nobody really cares about the GUI stuff, I'll simply write my own
version how I best know how and let criticism come in later.

John Moore