XtAppCreateShell(3)

💖 XtAppCreateShell — the tea ☕

okay bestie, so this is a page from the XT FUNCTIONS corner of the X Toolkit Intrinsics manual (libXt), and it's all about XtAppCreateShell and XtVaAppCreateShell — the two icons that ✨create top-level widget instances✨. Periodt.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

XtAppCreateShell, XtVaAppCreateShell — create top-level widget instance 🫶

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🎀 SYNTAX 🎀

First thing, bestie, you gotta include the header:

#include <X11/Intrinsic.h>

Then the two queens themselves:

Widget XtAppCreateShell(const char *application_name, const char
       *application_class, WidgetClass widget_class, Display *display,
       ArgList args, Cardinal num_args);

Widget XtVaAppCreateShell(const char * application_name, const char *
       application_class, WidgetClass widget_class, Display *display,
       ...);

not the varargs one serving ... realness 😭 iconic behavior honestly

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💅 ARGUMENTS 💅

Every single one, no skips, we don't gatekeep:

• application_name — the name of the application instance. yes, literally just the name of this instance, your little guy's government name 🍓
• application_class — the class name of this application. it's usually the generic name covering every instance of the app, so like the family name while application_name is the first name, iykyk 💜
• widget_class — the widget class that the application top-level widget should be. you pick it, it becomes it, main character energy 👑
• display — the display you're pulling resources from. gotta say where the vibes come from 🌈
• args — the argument list you're getting resources from.
• num_args — how many arguments are in that argument list. count them. fr fr 🔢
• ... — the variable argument list you're getting resources from (this is the XtVa one's whole thing, so extra, so valid ✨)

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so here's the lore 🧚

XtAppCreateShell saves the application_name and application_class you handed it, and it does that so it can qualify all the widget resource specifiers. those two values become the left-most components in every widget resource name for this application. like, they're the prefix, the header, the first two bars of the song 💖

and bestie, listen — XtAppCreateShell should be used to create a new logical application inside a program, or to create a shell on another display. two completely valid situations, both slay:

• in the first case, it lets you specify a new root in the resource hierarchy. fresh tree, new beginnings 🌱
• in the second case, it uses the resource database associated with the other display. it's not borrowing your display's drama, it's got its own 💅

🫶 heads up: the widget returned by XtAppCreateShell has the WM_COMMAND property set for session managers (see Chapter 4). no cap, it's right there in the text.

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

go read these next, bestie, for the full cinematic universe:

• XtCreateWidget(3)
• X Toolkit Intrinsics - C Language Interface
• Xlib - C Language X Interface

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and that's the whole page 💜 this was X Version 11, libXt 1.3.1 — consider yourself fully educated, now go create a shell and be the top-level widget you wish to see in the world 🎀✨ bye bestie!!