| Displaying VAX IDL widgets on a Sun workstation [message #326] |
Tue, 16 June 1992 08:13  |
thompson
Messages: 584
Registered: August 1991
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Senior Member |
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For a long time now I've been trying to display IDL MOTIF widgets from a
VAX/VMS computer on a Sun workstation running OpenWindows. I haven't been able
to in the past, and had suspected at various time DECWindows, the third-party
TCP/IP transport, and OpenWindows of being the culprit. However, today I found
that its the way one starts up IDL.
The secret seems to be that one needs to start up a widget routine, any widget
routine, before creating any plot windows. Apparently, it needs to allocate
some colors for the widget text and background. When the plot window is
created, it automatically allocates all remaining colors.
I've also noted that one can't have two copies of IDL running at the same time.
If not using widgets, then the second copy of IDL will simply allocate a
secondary color table. The screen will flash between the two color tables when
the pointer across the screen, but it will work. However, this doesn't seem to
work with widgets.
I would suppose that the colors IDL wants to use for the widgets would normally
belong to the window manager, but I guess there's a problem when running a
MOTIF program with an OpenLook window manager. However, there doesn't seem to
be any such problem in the opposite direction.
Bill Thompson
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| Re: Displaying VAX IDL widgets on a Sun workstation [message #328 is a reply to message #326] |
Tue, 16 June 1992 08:37  |
thompson
Messages: 584
Registered: August 1991
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Senior Member |
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In article <16JUN199211132982@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov>, I wrote...
> For a long time now I've been trying to display IDL MOTIF widgets from a
> VAX/VMS computer on a Sun workstation running OpenWindows. ...
>
> The secret seems to be that one needs to start up a widget routine, any widget
> routine, before creating any plot windows. Apparently, it needs to allocate
> some colors for the widget text and background. When the plot window is
> created, it automatically allocates all remaining colors. ...
After some more experimentation with "WINDOWS,COLORS=...", I've come to the
conclusion that it is enough to leave some colors (5) for the widgets, and that
one doesn't have to start the widgets first. However, I prefer to allow IDL to
choose for itself how many colors are available. I think that when IDL does
this, it should automatically keep back whatever colors it will need for the
widgets, if not already created.
Bill Thompson
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