The simplest step in integrating your application with the Desktop environment is to turn on the IRIX Interactive Desktop “look,” which enhances the appearance of standard IRIS IM widgets and gadgets. “The IRIX Interactive Desktop Look: Graphic Features and Schemes” in Chapter 3 of the IRIX Interactive User Interface Guidelines describes the enhancements.

To turn on the IRIX Interactive Desktop look for an application, simply set the application's sgiMode resource to “TRUE.” Typically, you should add this line to the /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults file for your application:

appName*sgiMode:    TRUE

where appName is the name of your application.

The standard IRIS IM library supports the IRIX Interactive Desktop look. You do not need to link with a separate library or call a special function to enable the IRIX Interactive Desktop look. If you do not turn on the IRIX Interactive Desktop look, your application's widgets and gadgets have the standard IRIS IM appearance.

If your application uses the IRIX Interactive Desktop look, it should also use schemes, which are described in Chapter 3, “Using Schemes”. SGI designed its color and font schemes to work well with the IRIX Interactive Desktop look.