INTRODUCTION

X Windows is a graphics standard that does low-level graphics and windows. Additional software packages called window managers and command toolkits implement the higher level user interface of menus, buttons, etc. XView is one such toolkit from Sun Microsystems. It improves an earlier toolkit called SunView. XView defines an improved set of command objects and easier-to-program subroutine library (relative to raw X Windows or other toolkits). XView gains through XWindows the advantages of network connectivity and hardware independence. XView is distributed freely with the MIT X Windows source code without the restrictions of its more popular competitor--Motif (TM Open Software Foundation). It works on all our computers.

XView seismic movies is improved over previous versions. One improvement is a sophisticated graphical control panel in addition to the previous keystroke controls. The same source code runs on all our computers and workstations. The different parts of the movie program--data management, image transformations, and display--can distributed to computers of different capabilities or to avoid congestion. For example, a Convex$\rightarrow$workstation configuration of XView-movie uses the large memory and speed of the Convex along with desktop display.