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From: klee@gilroy.pa.dec.com (Ken Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: X books
Message-ID: <1693@bacchus.dec.com>
Date: 17 Aug 89 18:37:23 GMT
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Reply-To: klee@decwrl.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Western Software Laboratory
Lines: 47

I used to periodically post a bibliography of technical publications
(mostly magazine and journal articles) on the X Window System.  I
thought this was useful because there few tutorial books available on
X.  Since then (it was only a few months ago, but that's a long time in
the rapidly changing workstation world), several good tutorial books
have appeared, but, for a long while, few technical articles have.
I've also been lazy, so haven't kept the bibliography up to date.  A
few good articles have recently come out, mostly on the second wave of
X stuff, like PEX and Motif.  I'll try to update the bibliography and
post it soon.  In the mean time, here are some good books for

Scheifler, Gettys, & Newman, *X Window System*, DEC Press

This is the bible on Xlib and the X protocol, but not especially good
as a tutorial.  You need this as a reference, even if you get something
else.  Shipped with the X11R3 distribution from MIT.

Nye, *Xlib Programming Manual*, O'Reilly & Associates
Jones, *Introduction to the X Window System*, Prentice-Hall
Johnson & Richard, *X Window Applications Programming*, MIS: Press

These 3 are similar, all tutorials Xlib programming.  The first was
written by a technical writer and is the most professional looking.
The other 2 were written by experienced X programmers.  The Jones book
has lots of useful tips on using Xlib.  The Johnson & Richard book has
lots and lots of sample code, but the coverage is thinner than the
Jones or Nye books.  None of these is as complete as Scheifler's
book.

Young, *X Window Systems:  Programming and Applications with Xt*,
Prentice-Hall

Despite the typo in the title, this is a pretty good book.  It's the
only one that covers the X Toolkit, explaining both writing widgets and
using them in applications programs.

There are a few others out there.  The ASP books are just reprints
(word for word) of the MIT manuals.  You might want to buy those if
your printer is tired.  Several more are in the works.  Some of these
should be excelent.

Enjoy.

Ken Lee
DEC Western Software Laboratory, Palo Alto, Calif.
Internet: klee@decwrl.dec.com
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