OPEN LOOK
| Company type | Specification |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer software |
| Founded | 1988 |
| Founder | Sun Microsystems and AT&T Corporation |
| Products | Graphical user interface specification, toolkits (OLIT, XView), OpenWindows environment |
| Parent | Sun Microsystems, AT&T Corporation |
OPEN LOOK (also styled as Open Look) represents a graphical user interface (GUI) specification designed for UNIX workstations, initially established in the late 1980s through a collaboration between Sun Microsystems and AT&T Corporation.
History
During a period when Unix graphical interfaces lacked uniformity, OPEN LOOK was introduced as a response to the growing adoption of the X Window System—which served as the Unix graphics standard but deliberately left visual style and interaction undefined, delegating these choices to application developers and window manager creators. At the same time, graphical user interfaces were gaining momentum on non-Unix platforms such as Apple’s Macintosh (1984), Microsoft Windows 1.0, and Amiga Workbench (1985).
As AT&T prepared its forthcoming Unix release (later known as SVR4), there was broad industry agreement on the necessity for a standardized Unix GUI to remain competitive. Additionally, legal challenges surfaced after Apple initiated a lawsuit against Microsoft in 1988 over alleged copying of the Macintosh’s look and feel.
The OPEN LOOK specification was jointly crafted by Sun and AT&T during the SVR4 development phase. Significant design input, review, implementation, and refinement came from Xerox PARC, whose licensed technology also helped address potential legal concerns.
Unveiled in April 1988, OPEN LOOK’s introduction spurred rival companies to establish the Open Software Foundation (OSF) in May 1988 as a strategic opposition. OSF subsequently created the Motif GUI as an alternative standard to OPEN LOOK.
Description
OPEN LOOK is distinguished by its use of oblong-shaped buttons, triangular icons signaling pull-down and pull-right menus, and "pushpin" controls that anchor dialog boxes and palettes on screen. Its fundamental design principle centers on providing a streamlined, uncluttered interface that emphasizes application content over interface elements. While originally developed with a monochrome palette, a later addition introduced a "three-dimensional" aesthetic to rival Motif’s visual style.
Rather than prescribing a single implementation, OPEN LOOK defines a consistent look and feel applicable across various toolkits and windowing environments; implementations were available for both the X Window System and Sun’s proprietary NeWS.
Sun Microsystems released an X Window System-based environment named OpenWindows, which implemented the OPEN LOOK standard. Application development was supported through two graphical libraries: the OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit (OLIT), built atop the Xt Intrinsics, and XView, designed to facilitate migration from Sun’s previous SunView system.
The NeWS Toolkit (TNT) also provided an OPEN LOOK implementation for NeWS applications but was discontinued within OpenWindows by 1993.
In 1990, Unix System Laboratories (USL) took ownership of OLIT from AT&T along with Unix rights. The codebases diverged thereafter as Sun focused on enhancing OLIT to align closely with XView, while USL developed MoOLIT (Motif OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit). MoOLIT maintained compatibility with the OLIT API but allowed users to switch between OPEN LOOK and Motif interfaces at runtime. MJM Software licensed MoOLIT’s source code and adapted it for multiple Unix platforms. Although primarily utilized by AT&T and Lucent Technologies to modernize OPEN LOOK applications with Motif visuals, MoOLIT saw limited adoption beyond these organizations.
Demise
By mid-1993, major UNIX vendors including AT&T and Sun collaborated under the Common Open Software Environment (COSE) initiative aiming to unify Unix environments and strengthen their position against Microsoft. This effort culminated in the creation of the Common Desktop Environment (CDE), which adopted Motif’s look and feel as its foundation. Sun announced intentions to provide Motif toolkits immediately while gradually retiring OpenWindows—the principal OPEN LOOK implementation at that time.
Initially, Sun offered the Motif development toolkit alongside the MWM as separate products for use with Solaris, preceding CDE’s official release in 1995. OpenWindows remained Solaris’ default desktop until 1997 when CDE became standard with Solaris 2.6; however, OpenWindows continued to be available as an optional environment.
With the release of Solaris 9 in 2002, native support for applications based on XView and OLIT was discontinued along with the olwm window manager and OPEN LOOK versions of the DeskSet utilities. Although existing XView and OLIT applications continue running on Solaris 9 and 10, Solaris 11 no longer provides direct support for them.
Currently, two projects sustain OPEN LOOK software: "OWAcomp," which facilitates usage of OPEN LOOK DeskSet tools and application compilation; and "openlook," which builds upon open-sourced OpenWindows code enhanced by additional components that were not publicly released by Sun.
Additional resources
- Open Books on OPEN LOOK provided by O'Reilly:
- Volume 3: OPEN LOOK User's Guide
- Volume 7A: XView Programming Manual
- Volume 7B: XView Reference Manual