dtksh supports the OSF/Motif graphical Toolkit
by making its routines available as built-in commands.
This allows programmers to combine the Korn shell's strength
as a Unix systems programming environment with the power and
abstraction of the Toolkit. The result is a unified
environment for quick and easy development of graphics-based
software.
There are various GUI development tools that allow you to construct
user interfaces with a graphics-based editor rather than with
programming language code. But such tools are typically huge,
expensive, and complex. dtksh, on the other hand,
is inexpensive and unbeatable for the smoothness of its
integration with Unix -- it's
the only such tool that you can use as your login shell!
(Well, almost; see the next section.)
It is a definite option for
systems programmers who use X-based
workstations and need a rapid prototyping tool.