The Intrinsics provide the basic mechanisms and policies that underlay geometry management in Motif. This chapter describes the Intrinsics support for managing geometry within widgets. This chapter also explains the geometry management tools that Motif provides for widget writers.
The fundamental principle of geometry management is that parent widgets control the geometry of their children. Despite this principle, child widgets are not as powerless as it might seem. For example, a child widget may request a geometry change from its parent, or a parent widget may ask a child widget for its opinion on an impending geometry change.