LessTif for XFree86/OS2

Introduction

LessTif is a freely available Motif-clone.
The OS/2 port was initially done by Michael Holzapfel and others. I'm maintaining it since October 1999.

Downloads

There are two packages available: the official one, being a big package with the level matching those of an official source drop and a runtime/binary-only. The latter one may be updated between official releases.
Don't forget to read the Installation Instructions!

Official 0.93.34 package

lesstif-0.93.34-OS2.zip
is not available here: check out the download page of the LessTif website.
Includes (almost) everything you need, but meanwhile requires a minimum of installation:

unzip the package in your XFree86/ tree
run ltversion with the proper option (w/o any argument to see the available command line arguments).
Current default version is 2.1, so you need to execute
```
ltversion 2.1
```

0.93.34 binary-only package

lesstif-bin.zip (1st build, 2201904 Bytes; 20020602)
Only the runtime libs (DLLs) and the mwm window manager executable (+ some docs).
You can not build applications on your own with this package! OTOH it therefore does not require any installation :-)

0.93.37 full package

lesstif-0.93.37.zip (1st build, 3604009 Bytes; 20020818)
Only the runtime libs (DLLs) and the mwm window manager executable (+ some docs).
Not an official release...

Older Xm.dll

Starting from 0.91.8 the libraries use a different naming scheme, e.g. Xm_12.dll for the Motif 1.2 compatible version of libXm.
You may try to patch older binaries using a hex editor to be linked against the new 1.2 library, i.e. Xm_12.dll. Not sure this whether is a trivial task or not ...
Finally you may also build a "new" Xm.dll from the current sources, but I won't do this.

Current Set of Makefiles

ltmake.zip (43586 Bytes; 20020501)
Currently supposed to work well, but I still have to clean up things.
This package is "always" outdated. So if you really want to use this - you may contact me first!

Compatibility note:
All libraries supplied here (Xm*, Mrm*, Dt, Uil) are still subject to change. We try to keep the libraries binary compatible to previous versions, but sometimes this may not work out.
So even if not stated explicitly you should rebuild yours apps based on LessTif from time to time!

To check what's installed I have written a tiny application to check the installed LessTif libs/headers. It's called xmversion. Unfortunately it's still not finished/perfect, but you should some information out of it. Ask me for the most recent version, if this app doesn't work for you!

Installation from sources

LessTif builds on OS/2 EMX out of the box !
So you can download it from the LessTif home site and it's mirrors and compile it yourself.
Unfortunately LessTif uses autoconf, automake and libtool for it's build system (including shared libraries). All these tools have ports for OS/2 with EMX, but these tools are not working properly, so you can't use them nowadays here (w/o major efforts). For now a set of Makefiles is being provided which enables you to build LessTif easily. Just unzip the ltmake package, edit make-include.emx and make-build.emx, then type

gnumake -f Makefile.emx
gnumake -f Makefile.emx install

Note that x11make.exe may not work; if it fails try to get one of those other ports to work. I'm using
GNU Make version 3.76.1
which looks like:


28.06.98  20.46     171520           0  gnumake.exe

Installation from binary distribution

If you don't want to compile the code yourself then you should just download one of the binary distributions and unzip this archive in your XFree86 tree. Being in the directory above XFree86/ just type

unzip lesstif-bin.zip

Building apps with LessTif

In case you want to build applications with LessTif you're usually done after extracting the binary distribution. However check above for specific installation notes.

Back to OS/2-stuff page of Alexander Mai