Users need a way to specify preferences for various user interface values (for example, colors, fonts, title strings, and so forth). Applications need a consistent method for determining the default interface values that are specific to them. It is also useful if application interface values can be modified by users without changes to the program code. For example, this capability can make it easy to change the color scheme of a user interface. In CLX, such interface values are referred to as resources. CLX defines functions for storing and retrieving interface resources from a resource database. A user can store various user interface values as resources in a resource database; a CLX application can then read these resource values and modify its user interface accordingly.
NOTE: The general term resource refers to any application user interface value stored in a resource database. The term server resource is used more specifically to refer to the types of objects allocated by an X server and referenced by clients (for example, windows, fonts, graphics contexts, and so forth).