Motif - The Industrial-Class UI Toolkit

Overview

Motif is the legendary user interface toolkit that defined the Unix desktop era and powered countless industrial, enterprise, and scientific applications throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Originally developed by the Open Software Foundation (OSF) in 1988, Motif became the de facto standard for professional Unix workstations and mission-critical applications.

This is a modern, actively maintained implementation of the Motif toolkit, preserving its industrial-strength reliability while adding contemporary features like UTF-8 support, Xft font rendering, and modern image format support. The project uses a modern CMake-based build system for improved cross-platform compatibility and developer experience.

Build Status

🚀 Modern C Standard Support: This project now fully supports the C23 standard and is compatible with GCC 15, ensuring cutting-edge compiler features and future-proof development.

This project is continuously tested on multiple Linux distributions with both GCC and Clang compilers to ensure maximum compatibility and reliability across different build environments:

GitHub Actions (GitHub)

🏔️ Alpine Linux + GCC: Tests compilation with GNU Compiler Collection on minimal Alpine Linux
🏔️ Alpine Linux + Clang: Tests compilation with LLVM Clang compiler on Alpine Linux

Gitverse Workflows (Gitverse)

🐧 Ubuntu Linux + GCC: Tests compilation with GNU Compiler Collection on Ubuntu Linux
🐧 Ubuntu Linux + Clang: Tests compilation with LLVM Clang compiler on Ubuntu Linux

This comprehensive testing approach ensures robust compatibility:

Alpine Linux provides minimal base system testing with musl libc and strict compiler settings
Ubuntu Linux provides mainstream glibc testing with comprehensive development libraries
Dual Compiler Testing verifies compatibility with both GNU and LLVM toolchains
Container Ready builds work correctly in constrained environments and Docker containers

Historical Significance

Motif was born from the collaboration of industry giants including Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM. It combined:

DEC's Widget Technology: Robust, enterprise-grade UI components
HP's 3D Visual Style: The iconic beveled, professional appearance
Microsoft's Presentation Manager Behavior: Consistent interaction patterns

This fusion created a toolkit that powered:

CAD/CAM Applications: AutoCAD, Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA
Scientific Computing: MATLAB, Mathematica, LabVIEW
Enterprise Software: Oracle databases, SAP systems
Unix Workstations: Sun, SGI, HP, DEC, IBM AIX systems
Common Desktop Environment (CDE): The standard Unix desktop

Features

Core Capabilities

Industrial-Strength Widgets: Over 50 production-ready UI components
Motif Window Manager (MWM): Professional window management
User Interface Language (UIL): Declarative UI development
Motif Resource Manager (MRM): Dynamic resource management
Internationalization: Full i18n support including UTF-8
Accessibility: Built-in keyboard navigation and screen reader support

Modern Enhancements

C23 Standard Support: Built with the latest C language standard for modern development
GCC 15 Compatibility: Future-ready compiler support with automatic fallback
Xft Font Rendering: Anti-aliased text with modern font support
PNG/JPEG Support: Modern image format integration
UTF-8 Support: Full Unicode text handling
Printing Support: Direct print integration
Message Catalogs: X/Open compliant localization

Widget Set

The comprehensive Motif widget set includes:

Primitive Widgets:

XmArrowButton, XmLabel, XmPushButton, XmToggleButton
XmText, XmTextField, XmList, XmScale, XmScrollBar

Manager Widgets:

XmBulletinBoard, XmForm, XmFrame, XmPanedWindow
XmRowColumn, XmScrolledWindow, XmMainWindow

Dialog Widgets:

XmMessageBox, XmFileSelectionBox, XmSelectionBox
XmCommand, XmPromptDialog

Advanced Widgets (Motif 2.x):

XmNotebook, XmContainer, XmSpinBox, XmComboBox
XmIconBox, XmOutline, XmTree, XmColumn

System Requirements

Supported Platforms

Linux: 2.6+ (tested on modern distributions)
Solaris: 10+
FreeBSD: 10+
Other Unix: Any POSIX-compliant system with X11

Dependencies

Build Dependencies

# Essential build tools
cmake >= 3.16             # Primary build system
pkg-config                # Package configuration
gcc >= 13.0 (supports C23 standard and GCC 15 compatibility)
make (GNU Make required)  # Build orchestration
flex/lex                  # Lexical analysis
yacc/bison                # Parser generation

# Optional but recommended
ninja                     # Faster build tool
ccache                    # Compiler cache for faster rebuilds

Compiler Support:

GCC 13.0+: Full C23 standard support with -std=c23 flag
GCC 15: Future-ready compatibility (uses -std=c2x fallback for current GCC versions)
Clang: Compatible with modern C standards
Legacy Compilers: Graceful fallback to C99/C11 standards

Runtime Dependencies

# Core X11 libraries
libX11-dev
libXt-dev
libXmu-dev
libXext-dev
libXpm-dev

# Optional but recommended
libXft-dev >= 2.0    # Anti-aliased fonts
libjpeg-dev          # JPEG image support
libpng-dev           # PNG image support
libXp-dev            # Printing support (if available)

Ubuntu/Debian Installation

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake pkg-config flex bison \
                     libx11-dev libxt-dev libxmu-dev libxext-dev \
                     libxpm-dev libxft-dev libjpeg-dev libpng-dev \
                     ninja-build ccache

RHEL/CentOS/Fedora Installation

sudo yum install gcc cmake pkgconfig flex bison ninja-build ccache \
                 libX11-devel libXt-devel libXmu-devel libXext-devel \
                 libXpm-devel libXft-devel libjpeg-devel libpng-devel

Automatic Dependency Management

For convenience, the project includes an automated dependency checker that supports multiple operating systems:

# Automatic dependency checking and installation
make deps

# Or run the script directly
./tools/dev/scripts/deps_check.sh

Supported Operating Systems:

Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint (apt)
Arch Linux, Manjaro (pacman)
RHEL, CentOS, Fedora, Rocky, Alma (dnf)
Alpine Linux (apk)
Void Linux (xbps)
OpenIndiana, OmniOS (pkg)
FreeBSD (pkg)

The dependency checker automatically:

Detects your operating system
Identifies missing packages
Installs required dependencies
Handles optional dependencies gracefully
Provides clear feedback and next steps

Troubleshooting

CMake Build Issues

If you encounter issues during the build process:

Missing Dependencies: Ensure all required packages are installed:

# Check dependencies
make deps

# Or install manually for your OS (see installation commands above)

Build Directory Issues: Clean and rebuild if you encounter strange build errors:

make clean
make build

Permission Issues: Ensure you have proper permissions for installation:

# Use sudo for system installation
sudo make install

# Or install to user directory
cmake -H. -Bbuild -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/.local
make build
make install

Building and Installation

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/dimmus/motif.git
cd motif

# Check and install dependencies (recommended)
make deps

# Or manually install dependencies for your OS
# (see manual installation commands above)

# Build Motif (CMake-based build system)
make build

# Install to system
sudo make install

# Uninstall if needed
sudo make uninstall

Build System

This project uses CMake as the primary build system, providing modern dependency management and cross-platform compatibility.

Available Build Targets

# Core build targets
make build          # Configure and build Motif (no installation)
make all            # Build and install Motif (legacy behavior)
make install        # Install to system (requires sudo)
make uninstall      # Uninstall from system (requires sudo)

# Build variants
make debug          # Build debug version with symbols
make release        # Build optimized release version
make lite           # Build minimal version (faster, smaller)
make full           # Build with all optional features
make developer      # Build with development tools and checks

# Build tools
make ninja          # Use Ninja build tool for faster builds
make ccache         # Use ccache for faster rebuilds
make config         # Run CMake configuration tool

Feature Control

# Configure with specific features
make config

# Or use CMake directly with feature flags
cmake -H. -Bbuild \
    -DWITH_UTF8=ON                    # UTF-8 text support (recommended)
    -DWITH_PRINTING=ON                # Print support (if libXp available)
    -DWITH_MESSAGE_CATALOG=ON         # X/Open message catalogs
    -DWITH_XFT=ON                     # Xft font rendering (recommended)
    -DWITH_JPEG=ON                    # JPEG image support
    -DWITH_PNG=ON                     # PNG image support
    -DWITH_DEMOS=ON                   # Build demonstration programs
    -DWITH_TESTS=ON                   # Build automated tests
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug          # Debug build with symbols

Installation Paths

# Configure installation paths
cmake -H. -Bbuild \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local    # Installation prefix
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_SYSCONFDIR=/etc      # Configuration files
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR=lib64         # Library directory

Complete Build Example

# Build with all modern features using CMake
make full release ninja ccache

# Or configure manually with specific features
cmake -H. -Bbuild \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local \
    -DWITH_UTF8=ON \
    -DWITH_DEMOS=ON \
    -DWITH_XFT=ON \
    -DWITH_JPEG=ON \
    -DWITH_PNG=ON \
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

# Build with parallel jobs
make build

# Install
sudo make install

# Update library cache
sudo ldconfig

# Uninstall if needed
sudo make uninstall

Development and Usage

Basic Application Structure

#include <Xm/Xm.h>
#include <Xm/MainW.h>
#include <Xm/PushB.h>
#include <Xm/Form.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    XtAppContext app_context;
    Widget toplevel, main_window, form, button;
    
    // Initialize toolkit
    toplevel = XtVaAppInitialize(&app_context, "MyApp", 
                                 NULL, 0, &argc, argv, NULL, NULL);
    
    // Create main window
    main_window = XmCreateMainWindow(toplevel, "main", NULL, 0);
    XtManageChild(main_window);
    
    // Create form container
    form = XmCreateForm(main_window, "form", NULL, 0);
    XtManageChild(form);
    
    // Create push button
    button = XmCreatePushButton(form, "Hello World", NULL, 0);
    XtManageChild(button);
    
    // Realize and run
    XtRealizeWidget(toplevel);
    XtAppMainLoop(app_context);
    
    return 0;
}

Compilation

# Using pkg-config (recommended) - automatically uses C23 standard
gcc -o myapp myapp.c `pkg-config --cflags --libs motif`

# Manual compilation with C23 standard
gcc -std=c23 -o myapp myapp.c -I/usr/local/include -L/usr/local/lib -lXm -lXt -lX11

# For GCC 15 compatibility (automatic fallback to c2x if c23 not supported)
gcc -std=c2x -o myapp myapp.c -I/usr/local/include -L/usr/local/lib -lXm -lXt -lX11

UIL Development

! MyApp.uil - User Interface Language file
module MyApp
    version = 'v1.0'
    names = case_sensitive

object root_window : XmMainWindow {
    controls {
        XmMenuBar menu_bar;
        XmForm work_area;
    };
};

object menu_bar : XmMenuBar {
    controls {
        XmCascadeButton file_menu;
    };
};

object work_area : XmForm {
    controls {
        XmPushButton hello_button;
    };
};

object hello_button : XmPushButton {
    arguments {
        XmNlabelString = "Hello, Motif World!";
    };
};

end module;

Compile UIL:

uil -o MyApp.uid MyApp.uil

Demo Programs

The distribution includes comprehensive demonstration programs:

# After building with --enable-examples
cd examples/programs

# Classic examples
./hellomotif/hellomotif          # Basic Motif application
./draw/draw                      # Drawing application
./animate/animate                # Animation demo
./filemanager/filemanager        # File manager
./periodic/periodic              # Periodic table

# Advanced widget examples  
./Notebook/notebook              # Notebook widget
./Container/container            # Container widget
./Tree/tree                      # Tree widget
./ComboBox/combo                 # Combo box widget

Applications and Legacy

Historic Applications

Motif powered numerous industry-defining applications:

CAD/Engineering: AutoCAD, Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA, I-DEAS
Scientific Computing: MATLAB, Mathematica, LabVIEW, AVS
Databases: Oracle Forms, Informix, Sybase
Development Tools: Sun Workshop, SGI Workshop, DEC FUSE
System Administration: HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli, Sun AdminSuite

Modern Usage

Today, Motif continues to serve:

Legacy Application Maintenance: Keeping critical systems operational
Industrial Control Systems: Manufacturing and process control
Scientific Instruments: Laboratory and research equipment
Embedded Systems: Specialized Unix-based devices
Educational Projects: Learning classic Unix GUI development

Documentation

Official Resources

Motif Programmer's Guide: Complete development documentation
Motif Reference Manual: Widget and function reference
Style Guide: User interface design principles
Man Pages: Comprehensive API documentation

Online Documentation

Quick References

# View widget man pages
man XmPushButton
man XmText
man XmMainWindow

# UIL documentation
man uil
man Mrm

# Window manager
man mwm

Project Structure

motif/
├── lib/Xm/          # Core Motif widget library
├── lib/Mrm/         # Motif Resource Manager
├── clients/         # Motif applications
│   ├── mwm/         # Motif Window Manager
│   ├── uil/         # UIL compiler
│   └── xmbind/      # Key binding utility
├── include/         # Header files
├── examples/         # Example programs
├── doc/             # Documentation and man pages
├── data/            # Resource files and bitmaps
└── tools/           # Development utilities

Contributing

We welcome contributions to keep this historic toolkit alive and relevant:

Areas of Interest

Bug Fixes: Addressing compatibility issues
Modern Platform Support: New OS and compiler support
Performance Improvements: Optimizations and memory management
Documentation: Examples and tutorials
Testing: Automated test coverage

Development Setup

git clone https://github.com/dimmus/motif.git
cd motif

# Development build with all features
make developer debug full ninja ccache

# Or configure manually for development
cmake -H. -Bbuild \
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug \
    -DWITH_DEMOS=ON \
    -DWITH_TESTS=ON \
    -DWITH_UTF8=ON \
    -DWITH_XFT=ON

# Build
make build

# Run tests
make test

# Generate code coverage reports
make gcov

Code Coverage

When tests are enabled (-DWITH_TESTS=ON), you can generate code coverage reports:

# Generate coverage reports
make gcov

# Clean up coverage files
make clean-gcov

# View available targets
make help

The coverage system automatically detects your compiler:

GCC: Uses gcov for coverage analysis
Clang: Uses llvm-cov gcov for coverage analysis

Coverage reports are generated as .gcov files in the source directories.

Additional Build Commands

# View all available targets
make help

# Clean build directory
make clean

# Clean everything including build directory
make clean_all

# Package the build
make package_archive

# Format source code
make format PATHS="lib/Xm clients"

# Run static analysis
make check_cppcheck
make check_clang_array
make check_struct_comments

License

This implementation of Motif is released under the LGPL 2.1 license, ensuring it remains free and open source while allowing commercial usage.

Support and Community

Issue Tracker: GitHub Issues
Discussions: GitHub Discussions

Acknowledgments

This project builds upon decades of development by:

Open Software Foundation (OSF): Original Motif creators
The Open Group: Motif stewardship and standards
ICS/Integrated Computer Solutions: Commercial Motif development
OpenMotif Community: Open source maintenance and evolution

Special thanks to:

"Motif: Where industrial-strength meets elegant design. Powering mission-critical applications since 1988."

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
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.github/workflows		.github/workflows
.gitverse/workflows		.gitverse/workflows
data		data
doc		doc
include		include
localized		localized
src		src
tools		tools
.dockerignore		.dockerignore
.gitignore		.gitignore
CMakeLists.txt		CMakeLists.txt
GNUmakefile		GNUmakefile
README.md		README.md

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