# X_YACL: Motif-like visual objects under YACL

YACL now includes an experimental Motif-free implementation of the VisualObject classes under X windows. This implementation draws the widgets and responds to events such that the look and feel is similar to that of Motif, with the simulated three-dimensional look. The widgets are drawn, however, using Xlib primitives, thus obviating the need for the proprietary Motif library. The library does not use the Xt intrinsics either.

To use this implementation, YACL must be compiled with the `X_YACL` widget set chosen. This is done in the control file `control/gnuc.ctl`, where the symbol `X_YACL` must be uncommented and the symbol `X_MOTIF` must be commented out.

At the time of this writing (June 20th, 1997), the implementation includes push buttons, toggle and ex-or toggle buttons, button groups, menus and string editors, as well as the standard dialogs. The implementation is still experimental, and is likely to have bugs. Please report any bugs, problems, comments and criticisms to the author.

### Known problems

Combo boxes are not yet implemented.

TextEditor is not yet implemented.

The standard font selection dialog (`UI_FontSelectDialog`) is not yet implemented.

There is no resource mechanism such as is supported by Xt and Motif. Visual object attributes can only be set under program control.

Keyboard support still isn't very complete. For example, the StringEditor doesn't support keyboard-based selection, only mouse-based selection. And its key bindings look very Windows-ish, in that it uses Home, End and arrow keys rather than Emacs-style bindings. Its key bindings aren't yet configurable by application program.