V. FEATURES AND SUPPORTED PLATFORMS

The products in this FAQ are pretty similar in their basic functionality; they each provide function calls or classes that allow the user to build windows, buttons (regular as well as radio buttons and check boxes), menus, menu bars, and the like. Areas of contention seem to be things such as:

• support for the platforms you need,
• the choice of implementation language,
• availability and price of source code,
• printer support,
• support for international character sets,
• capability to support draw-package-like features,
• bitmap (and icon) support,
• the approach to platform independence (see below),
• nifty high-level widgets, and
• price (complete price including royalties and distribution charges),

Of course, each user will have his own requirements; YMMV.

Now, on to the comparisons. To interpret the tables below, bear in mind the following things:

• If information for a cell is unknown, a period ('.') is placed there. It is the ultimate goal of the author to eliminate all of these.
• If a PIGUI package does not support a feature or platform in the table, the cell is marked with a hyphen ('-').
• If a feature or platform is not currently supported, but that support is planned, the cell is marked with ('soon'). Support in the form of beta versions (as well as longer- lead versions) fit in this category.
• If a price is known for a product, that price is inserted in the appropriate cell of the table. If that price is not known (but the feature is supported), the cell is marked with 'yes' -- it is hoped that all 'yes' entries will be replaced with prices "Real Soon Now".
• Note that prices in this FAQ are the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price). The street price for some of these products can be *significantly* less.
• Tables are annotated, where appropriate, with letters (in parenthesis where it doesn't take-up too much room). The appropriate notes are found below the table. Also note that as information changes, some of the notes will disappear. The note letters will not necessarily be in sequence -- get used to it.

Another note: given that Sun Microsystems has announced its abandonment of OpenLook in favor of COSE, I'm not sure I'd hold my breath for the OpenLook betas in the tables below. It may just not be worth it for some of the vendors to support a product that has limited (at best) application (in fact, at least one vendor has abandoned an existing OpenLook product).

The following products are listed in this FAQ. Abbreviations are given for product names which are too long to go into the tables.

In addition, I'd like to mention the following products that are not mentioned in this document (well, not except for here):

Table 1: PLATFORM VS. PRICE (US$ except where noted)

(a) This is the price for platforms other than x86-based computers. For x86-based machines (under DOS/UNIX/Xenix -- where applicable), the price is $1950.

(b) For non-x86 platforms, check for availability -- Alpha and MIPS supported.

(c) Support for this product has been discontinued.

(d) Novell're currently determining pricing information -- they use the term 'negotiated'.

(e) Zinc requires a single-time purchase of the Zinc GUI engine. This is $499. After this price, the individual GUIs to be supported are added-on.

(f) Win16, Win32s, and Win32 are packaged together.

(g) for a PC-based Unix, we're talking $5850.

(h) This product uses the API that's native on this platform (e.g., support for Win32 under MS-Windows NT); so, in that sense, it supports this platform.

(j) Pre-release.

(k) This product is free for non-commercial use. If you make a profit, you'll have to check with the vendor for pricing and availability.

(m) Each version of Galaxy is able to use the Motif, OpenLook, OS/2 CUA, or Windows look-and-feels. On the Macintosh version the Mac look-and-feel is available along with the others listed above. Also: This is the C price. You're looking at $12.2K for C++.

(n) The cost drops for subsequent copies. Number 2 is $3500 and number 3 is $2000.

(p) The pricing here is a little complicated. It was explained to me as follows. "We have both systems based pricing and floating license pricing. The system based pricing runs from $3K (small Sun or SCO) to $24K (big VAX or Sun 2000). The Unix Motif floating license pricing is $6K for the first license and $3K for each additional license."

(q) This price may be out-of-date. (s) That's Microsoft Windows (TM). (u) Price does not include source code (the other MEWEL products do).

(w) Does work on PenOS systems, but does not *yet* have Pen extensions.

(x) That's OpenLook.

(y) That's NextStep.

(z) DOS Text is sold separately from DOS graphics.

What we're looking at is two groups of products. The lower-priced group is usually C++, is a more recent introduction to the market, is almost always a layered GUI, and concentrates on PC-based operating systems. Products from the higher-priced group usually offer a more stable platform with both greater breadth and depth than does the previous group. In either case, the cost premium for UNIX support is usually a factor of 3 -- that is, the GUI package for a UNIX platform for any PIGUI product is usually 3 times as expensive as the version for DOS/MS-Windows. Other "personal" operating systems (e.g. OS/2 and the Mac) vary as to whether they follow the UNIX pricing or the PC pricing. These are merely observations, your mileage may vary.

Table 2: FEATURES, OTHER NIFTIES, AND HIDDEN COSTS

(a) This is the number of days that the product can be evaluated. Inside this time, the software can be returned for full money back (minus, possibly, a cost for the evaluation -- check with the vendor).

(b) Open Software Associates is willing to make a deal for source on a case-by-case basis.

(c) Galaxy's C++ product is not available on the Macintosh.

(d) Give them a P.O. They'll give it back if you don't like the product. They require the evaluator to take a 1 week, $2500 course.

(e) Source code is held in an escrow account. You can't get to it unless the company goes belly-up. This helps you protect your investment -- if the company goes belly-up, you can do the software maintenance yourself.

(f) You can buy it, or you can get an escrow account. (g) This is a WYSIWYG GUI Builder.

(h) Pascal, Cobol, and Ada are supported, too, but there wasn't room.

(j) There is a cost for evaluation.

(k) They've taken a 'wrappers' approach -- you can't subclass from their C++ classes.

(n) Uses SunOS's DevGuide.

(p) Type means 'emulated', 'layered', or 'API emulated'. This describes how the product approaches support for various GUIs.

(q) They charge (about $500) for a 90 day (money applicable to purchase) evaluation period. Included is a 1-day training course and phone and fax support.

(r) ASCII, OS/2, and Unix versions come with source for free. The DOS version is an additional $400 with source. The Motif version can also be purchased.

(s) You can program in the MS Windows API or use MFC, OWL, or C++/Views.

(t) Any C/C++-based (depending on the nature of the product) MS Windows Application Builder will work.

(u) Different LISP vendors support CLIM -- each provides a different set of options and pricing structures.

(w) MAINWin kind-of charges royalties. Every machine on which one or more applications developed with MAINWin is to be run needs a license for the shared libraries. The cost runs between $195 (quantity 1) and $156 (quantity 100) per machine.

(x) These guys have a 'flexible evaluation structure'.

(z) This represents a cost per platform or application (check with the vendor) distributed. It's not technically a royalty since the cost is not per unit of software shipped, but it is a cost that one has to consider. These costs are usually limited to commercial applications.
The following table makes the most sense for operating systems that work on various types of hardware (e.g., UNIX, Windows NT) rather than for OSs dedicated to a certain type of hardware (e.g., DOS, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh).
A `y' indicates that support has been verified by a user report. A `c' indicates that the hardware/OS is claimed to work in vendor literature. An `e' indicates that this is the API emulated by the software. A `b' indicates that the hardware/OS is in beta. A `p' indicates that the hardware/OS is planned, but not yet in beta. An `x' indicates that support for the hardware/OS is being PHASED OUT. An `i' indicates that I've heard that the vendor has ported their libraries, but they are only available in-house. A `.' indicates that whether this combination works is unknown. A `-' indicates that the vendor doesn't support that hardware. A `*' points you at footnote info.

Table 3: HARDWARE VENDORs SUPPORTED

Table 4: SUPPORT FEATURES

(b) There's a mailing list.

(c) CLIM is a multi-vendor product. See the individual vendor for information.

(d) There is a SUIT mailing list. Send email to 'suit-users-request@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU' for mor information.

(e) That's for one person. The second person is $700, and subsequent users are at $500.

(f) Installation and temporary evaluation help plus one free general support question.

(g) Gopher service.

(h) Support (including distribution) by e-mail.

(j) This is for their higher-end support. Simple support still comes for free.

(k) They support an email mailing list.

(m) WWW support.

(n) Newsletter.

(p) Cost of technical support per year == purchase price of product.

(r) Informally.