libcyui

libcyui is the widget set. Its job is to reproduce the SGM widgets, which are the Indigo Magic controls, and then to be the only GUI library the desktop links.

What it is for

Indigo Magic was not stock Motif with a different palette. The SGM set is the dials, the thumbwheels, the microdials, the drop pockets, the finder, the icon views, SgList, the meters, and the particular menus and notices of that desktop. libcyui is that set, written for Blueprint, and it is fed by the same scheme roles as everything else on the desk.

A program calls CyCreate-style constructors and Cy widget classes. Color comes from CySchemeD and the .cyscheme file. A widget that paints a private hard-coded gray is a bug, because a scheme change cannot reach it.

Where 1.0 actually is

As of 21 October 2026, this is a count of the places the applications construct a widget. Constructions inside libcyui itself are not in the count.

• About 1045 construction sites.
• About 493 of them, a little under half, are libcyui.
• About 549 are still Motif layout and chrome: labels, forms, RowColumns, frames, separators, scrolled windows, main windows.
• Leftover Motif controls, as opposed to layout, are down to a handful. Push buttons, toggles, text, lists, scales, scrollbars, menus, and dials in the applications are Cy calls.

That is a little over halfway on the widgets you actually touch, and about 30 percent of the way to a desktop that does not link Motif at all. Both numbers are the maintainer's reading of that census. They are not a marketing round-up.

The second number is the smaller one for a plain reason. libcyui's own classes are still subclasses of Motif primitives, managers, and drawing areas. Some dialogs inside the library are still built with Motif forms, labels, and frames. Every GUI binary still links libXm, libXt, and libX11. Unlinking Motif has not started. Painting the buttons again would not move that number. The remaining work starts at the geometry manager and the class records.

3.x

The plan is that the 3.x desktop runs on libcyui alone, with no Motif on the link line. 1.0 will not do that, and this page will not pretend otherwise. 1.0 ships the Cy controls, the scheme, and an honest Motif dependency. 3.x is when that dependency goes away.

cyuidemo is the gallery for the set. If a widget has two modes, for example a scrollbar that only shows its arrows when the list is long enough to need them, the demo is supposed to show both modes.

The set, by name

Some pieces of libcyui are still missing, but we are getting there, and the library will eventually stand on its own. We are nearly halfway there already, and this is just the first release.