OPEN LOOK was created at a time when there was little or no standardization in Unix graphical user interfaces (GUIs); the X Window System was emerging as the likely de facto standard for Unix graphical displays, but its designers had deliberately chosen not to specify any look and feel guidelines, leaving this up to application and window manager developers. At the same time, there was increasing use of GUIs in non-UNIX operating systems: the AppleMacintosh was released in early 1984, followed by MicrosoftWindows 1.0 and Amiga Workbench in 1985.
As AT&T contemplated its next major revision to Unix, which would eventually become SVR4, it was believed by many that in order to remain competitive with other operating systems, Unix should have a standard GUI definition. One other concern of the time was legal exposure surrounding intellectual property: in March 1988, Apple filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, claiming that Microsoft had copied the Macintosh look and feel.
The OPEN LOOK specification was a collaboration between Sun and AT&T, who were then partnering in the development of SVR4. Xerox PARC was also credited for having not only done the pioneering work in the industry for graphical user interfaces, but also for contributing to OPEN LOOK's "design, review, implementation, testing, and refinement".[1] Involving Xerox, including licensing technology from them,[2] was felt to serve as protection from any future legal entanglements.
The specification was announced in April 1988. The following month, a group of competitors to AT&T and Sun formed the Open Software Foundation (OSF), as a counter to their collaborative efforts. The OSF created the Motif GUI as its alternative to OPEN LOOK.
DescriptionEdit
Desktop running olvwm, showing xterms, oclock, the Virtual Desktop manager, and the window menu
OPEN LOOK is distinguished by its obround buttons, triangle glyphs to indicate pull-down and pull-right menus, and "pushpins" which allowed the user to make dialog boxes and palettes stay visible. The overall philosophy was to provide a clean, simple and uncluttered interface, so that the user's focus would be on the application rather than the interface.[1] In fact, the original OPEN LOOK design was black and white only; a "three-dimensional" look and feel with shading was added later, in response to the 3-D style effects in Motif.
It is a definition of a look and feel rather than a specific implementation, so it could actually be implemented with different programming toolkits or even on different underlying window systems; implementations were created for both the X Window System and Sun's NeWS.
Sun developed an X Window System distribution implementing the OPEN LOOK look and feel, calling it OpenWindows. Developers building OPEN LOOK applications could choose between two graphical programming libraries: the OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit (OLIT) or XView. The former was built on the Xt Intrinsics toolkit common to X; the latter used the same programming interface paradigm as the GUI libraries for Sun's earlier SunView window system, making it relatively easy for developers to migrate applications from SunView to X.
There was also The NeWS Toolkit, or TNT, which as the name implies implemented OPEN LOOK for NeWS applications; support for NeWS applications was removed from OpenWindows in 1993.
In 1990, Unix System Laboratories (USL) inherited OLIT from AT&T along with UNIX. Not long after, the codebase for OLIT diverged as Sun and USL took its development in different directions. Sun continued to enhance its version to make its look and feel more consistent with XView. USL, in an attempt to create an API to make applications GUI independent, developed MoOLIT (from Motif OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit), which kept the OLIT API, but allowed users to choose which GUI they wanted at run time. The source to MoOLIT was licensed by MJM Software, who ported it to several other Unix platforms. It was used for several years, almost exclusively by AT&T and Lucent Technologies, who wanted to give their existing OPEN LOOK applications a Motif look and feel. It was not widely used elsewhere.
By June 1993, the major UNIX players, including AT&T and Sun, had decided that a truly unified Unix was necessary in order to better compete against Microsoft and had formed the Common Open Software Environment (COSE) initiative. The unified desktop for this initiative became the Common Desktop Environment (CDE), and the look and feel chosen for it was based on Motif. Sun announced its plans to immediately offer Motif and start retiring OpenWindows, by then the predominant implementation of the OPEN LOOK look and feel.
Sun began by offering the Motif developer toolkit and MWMwindow manager as a standalone product for use with Solaris until CDE was released in 1995. OpenWindows remained the primary Solaris desktop environment until 1997, when CDE became the primary desktop for Solaris 2.6. Even then, OpenWindows was still included with Solaris and could continue to be used instead of CDE.
When Solaris 9 was released in 2002, development support for XView and OLIT-based applications was finally removed, as were the olwm window manager and the OPEN LOOK versions of the DeskSet productivity tools. Applications already developed using XView and OLIT can still be executed and displayed in both Solaris 9 and 10, but are no longer supported as native applications in Solaris 11.[3]
There are at least two projects continuing development of OPEN LOOK software: "OWAcomp" makes it possible to still use the OPEN LOOK DeskSet tools, as well as compile OPEN LOOK applications; "openlook" is based on OpenWindows code released as open source, but has added additional components that were not open sourced by Sun.
^Tony Hoeber (December 1988). "Face to face with Open Look". Byte Magazine. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
^"End of Features (EOF) Planned for Future Releases of Oracle Solaris". Oracle Technology Network. Oracle Corporation. Retrieved 2016-04-18. The OpenWindows libraries have been removed. Applications that use OpenWindows toolkits such as XView and OpenLook Intrinsic Toolkit (OLIT) [sic] no longer run. However, if required, the applications that use OpenWindows Libraries can be run in Oracle Solaris 10 Zones.
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This article is about a user interface specification For the legacy desktop environment implementing this specification see OpenWindows This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources OPEN LOOK news newspapers books scholar JSTOR March 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message OPEN LOOK sometimes referred to as Open Look is a graphical user interface GUI specification for UNIX workstations It was originally defined in the late 1980s by Sun Microsystems and AT amp T Corporation OpenWindows file managerX Window System graphics stack Contents 1 History 2 Description 3 Demise 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External linksHistory EditOPEN LOOK was created at a time when there was little or no standardization in Unix graphical user interfaces GUIs the X Window System was emerging as the likely de facto standard for Unix graphical displays but its designers had deliberately chosen not to specify any look and feel guidelines leaving this up to application and window manager developers At the same time there was increasing use of GUIs in non UNIX operating systems the Apple Macintosh was released in early 1984 followed by Microsoft Windows 1 0 and Amiga Workbench in 1985 As AT amp T contemplated its next major revision to Unix which would eventually become SVR4 it was believed by many that in order to remain competitive with other operating systems Unix should have a standard GUI definition One other concern of the time was legal exposure surrounding intellectual property in March 1988 Apple filed a lawsuit against Microsoft claiming that Microsoft had copied the Macintosh look and feel The OPEN LOOK specification was a collaboration between Sun and AT amp T who were then partnering in the development of SVR4 Xerox PARC was also credited for having not only done the pioneering work in the industry for graphical user interfaces but also for contributing to OPEN LOOK s design review implementation testing and refinement 1 Involving Xerox including licensing technology from them 2 was felt to serve as protection from any future legal entanglements The specification was announced in April 1988 The following month a group of competitors to AT amp T and Sun formed the Open Software Foundation OSF as a counter to their collaborative efforts The OSF created the Motif GUI as its alternative to OPEN LOOK Description Edit nbsp Desktop running olvwm showing xterms oclock the Virtual Desktop manager and the window menuOPEN LOOK is distinguished by its obround buttons triangle glyphs to indicate pull down and pull right menus and pushpins which allowed the user to make dialog boxes and palettes stay visible The overall philosophy was to provide a clean simple and uncluttered interface so that the user s focus would be on the application rather than the interface 1 In fact the original OPEN LOOK design was black and white only a three dimensional look and feel with shading was added later in response to the 3 D style effects in Motif It is a definition of a look and feel rather than a specific implementation so it could actually be implemented with different programming toolkits or even on different underlying window systems implementations were created for both the X Window System and Sun s NeWS Sun developed an X Window System distribution implementing the OPEN LOOK look and feel calling it OpenWindows Developers building OPEN LOOK applications could choose between two graphical programming libraries the OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit OLIT or XView The former was built on the Xt Intrinsics toolkit common to X the latter used the same programming interface paradigm as the GUI libraries for Sun s earlier SunView window system making it relatively easy for developers to migrate applications from SunView to X There was also The NeWS Toolkit or TNT which as the name implies implemented OPEN LOOK for NeWS applications support for NeWS applications was removed from OpenWindows in 1993 In 1990 Unix System Laboratories USL inherited OLIT from AT amp T along with UNIX Not long after the codebase for OLIT diverged as Sun and USL took its development in different directions Sun continued to enhance its version to make its look and feel more consistent with XView USL in an attempt to create an API to make applications GUI independent developed MoOLIT from Motif OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit which kept the OLIT API but allowed users to choose which GUI they wanted at run time The source to MoOLIT was licensed by MJM Software who ported it to several other Unix platforms It was used for several years almost exclusively by AT amp T and Lucent Technologies who wanted to give their existing OPEN LOOK applications a Motif look and feel It was not widely used elsewhere Demise Edit nbsp The Motif Window Manager MWM nbsp The Common Desktop Environment CDE By June 1993 the major UNIX players including AT amp T and Sun had decided that a truly unified Unix was necessary in order to better compete against Microsoft and had formed the Common Open Software Environment COSE initiative The unified desktop for this initiative became the Common Desktop Environment CDE and the look and feel chosen for it was based on Motif Sun announced its plans to immediately offer Motif and start retiring OpenWindows by then the predominant implementation of the OPEN LOOK look and feel Sun began by offering the Motif developer toolkit and MWM window manager as a standalone product for use with Solaris until CDE was released in 1995 OpenWindows remained the primary Solaris desktop environment until 1997 when CDE became the primary desktop for Solaris 2 6 Even then OpenWindows was still included with Solaris and could continue to be used instead of CDE When Solaris 9 was released in 2002 development support for XView and OLIT based applications was finally removed as were the olwm window manager and the OPEN LOOK versions of the DeskSet productivity tools Applications already developed using XView and OLIT can still be executed and displayed in both Solaris 9 and 10 but are no longer supported as native applications in Solaris 11 3 There are at least two projects continuing development of OPEN LOOK software OWAcomp makes it possible to still use the OPEN LOOK DeskSet tools as well as compile OPEN LOOK applications openlook is based on OpenWindows code released as open source but has added additional components that were not open sourced by Sun References Edit a b Sun Microsystems Inc 1989 OPEN LOOK Graphical User Interface Functional Specification Addison Wesley ISBN 0 201 52365 5 Tony Hoeber December 1988 Face to face with Open Look Byte Magazine Retrieved 2007 07 31 End of Features EOF Planned for Future Releases of Oracle Solaris Oracle Technology Network Oracle Corporation Retrieved 2016 04 18 The OpenWindows libraries have been removed Applications that use OpenWindows toolkits such as XView and OpenLook Intrinsic Toolkit OLIT sic no longer run However if required the applications that use OpenWindows Libraries can be run in Oracle Solaris 10 Zones Further reading EditOpen Books on OPEN LOOK from O Reilly Volume 3 OPEN LOOK User s Guide Volume 7A XView Programming Manual Volume 7B XView Reference ManualExternal links EditOpenWindows Augmented Compatibility Environment on SourceForge OpenLook Desktop on SourceForge Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title OPEN LOOK amp oldid 1134765904, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
