This article and three following contain the answers to some Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQ) often seen in comp.windows.x. It is posted to help reduce
volume in this newsgroup and to provide hard-to-find information of general
interest.
Please redistribute this article!
This article includes answers to the following questions, which are loosely
grouped into categories. Questions marked with a + indicate questions new to
this issue; those with significant changes of content since the last issue are
marked by !:
0) TOPIC: BASIC INFORMATION SOURCES AND DEFINITIONS
1)! What books and articles on X are good for beginners?
2)! What courses on X and various X toolkits are available?
3)! What conferences on X are coming up?
4)! What X-related public mailing lists are available?
5) What related FAQs are available?
6) How do I ask a net-question so as to maximize helpful responses?
7)! What publications discussing X are available?
8) How can I meet other X developers?
9) What are these common abbreviations?
10) What is the ICCCM? (How do I write X-friendly applications?)
11) What is the X Consortium, and how do I join?
12) Just what are OPEN LOOK and Motif?
13) Just what is OpenWindows?
14) Just what is DECWindows?
15) What is PEX?
16) TOPIC: USING X IN DAY-TO-DAY LIFE
17) What are all these different window managers?
18) Why does my X session exit when I kill my window manager?
19)! Can I save the state of my X session, like toolplaces does?
20) How do I use another window manager with DEC's session manager?
21) How do I change the keyboard auto-repeat rate?
22)! How do I remap the keys on my keyboard to produce a string?
23) How do I make a screendump of the X display?
24) How do I make a color PostScript screendump of the X display?
25) How can I print the current selection?
26)! How to I have the R4 xdm put a picture behind the log-in window?
27) Why are my xterm menus so small?
28) Where can I find a dictionary server for xwebster?
29) How do I convert/view Mac/TIFF/GIF/Sun/PICT/img/FAX images in X?
30) How can I change the titlebar of my xterm window?
31) Where can I find the xterm control sequences?
32) How do I keep my $DISPLAY when I rlogin to another machine?
33)! How can I design my own font?
34)! Why does adding a font to the server not work?
35) How do I convert a ".snf" font back to ".bdf" font?
36)! What is a general method of getting a font in usable format?
37)- How do I use HP ".scf" fonts on my MIT R4 server?
38)- How do I use DECwindows ".pcf" fonts on my MIT R4 server?
39) How do I use DECwindows fonts on my non-DECwindows server?
40) How do I add ".bdf" fonts to my DECwindows server?
41) How can I set the backgroundPixmap resource in a defaults file?
42) Why does the R3 xterm, et al, fail against the R4 server?
43)- Why doesn't xlock work on my R4 server?
44) How can I have xclock or oclock show different timezones?
45) I have xmh, but it doesn't do anything. Where can I get mh?
46) Why am I suddenly unable to connect to my Sun X server?
47) Why can't I override translations? Only the first item works.
48) How do I report bugs in X?
49) Why don't the R5 PEX demos work on my mono screen?
50) Why do I get "Warning: Widget class version mismatch"?
51) TOPIC: OBTAINING X AND RELATED SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE
52) Is X public-domain software?
53) How compatible are X11R3, R4, and R5? What changes are there?
54)! Where can I get X11R5 (source and/or binaries)?
55)! Where can I obtain patches to X11R5?
56) What is the xstuff mail-archive?
57) Where can I obtain X11R4 (source and binaries)?
58) Where can I obtain OSF/Motif?
59)! Does Motif work with X11R4? X11R5?
60)! Where can I obtain toolkits implementing OPEN LOOK?
61)! Where can I obtain other X sources?
62) Where can I obtain interesting widgets?
63) What is the current state of the world in X terminals?
64) Where can I get an X server with a touchscreen or lightpen?
65)! Where can I get an X server on a PC (DOS or Unix)?
66) Where can I get an X server on a Macintosh running MacOS?
67) Where can I get X for the Amiga?
68) Where can I get a fast X server for a workstation?
69) Where can I get a server for my high-end Sun graphics board?
70) Where can I get an "X terminal" server for my low-end Sun 3/50?
71) What terminal emulators other than xterm are available?
72)! Where can I obtain an X-based editor or word-processor?
73)! Where can I obtain an X-based mailer?
74) Where can I obtain an X-based paint/draw program?
75) Where can I obtain an X-based plotting program?
76) Where can I obtain an X-based spreadsheet?
77)! Where can I get an X-based PostScript previewer?
78) Where can I get an X-based GKS package?
79) Where can I get an X-based PEX package?
80) Where can I get an X-based TeX or DVI previewer?
81) Where can I get an X-based troff previewer?
82)! Where can I obtain a WYSIWYG interface builder?
83) Where can I find X tools callable from shell scripts?
84)! Where can I get an X-based debugger?
85) How can I "tee" an X program identically to several displays?
86) TOPIC: BUILDING THE X DISTRIBUTION [topic needs updating to R5]
87) What's a good source of information on configuring the X build?
88) Why doesn't my Sun with a cg6 work with R5?
89) Why doesn't my Sun with SunOS 4.1 know about _dlsym, etc.?
90) Why can't gcc compile X11R4 on my SPARC?
91) What are these I/O errors running X built with gcc?
92) What are these problems compiling X11R4 with "gcc -traditional"?
93) What are these problems compiling X11R4 on ISC?
94) What are these problems compiling X11R4 on the older Sun3?
95) What are these problems compiling the X server on SunOS 4.1.1?
96) What are these problems using R4 shared libraries on SunOS 4?
97) How do I get around the SunOS 4.1 security hole?
98) TOPIC: BUILDING X PROGRAMS
99) What is Imake?
100) Where can I get imake?
101) I have a program with an Imakefile but no Makefile. What to do?
102) Why can't I link to the Xlib shape routines?
103) What are these problems with "_XtInherit not found" on the Sun?
104) Why can't I compile my R3 Xaw contrib programs under the new X?
105) TOPIC: PROGRAMMING PROBLEMS AND PUZZLES
106) Why doesn't my program get the keystrokes I select for?
107) How do I figure out what window manager is running?
108) Is there a skeleton X program available?
109) Why does XtGetValues not work for me?
110) Why don't XtConfigureWidget/XtResizeWidget/XtMoveWidget work?
111) How can my application tell if it is being run under X?
112) How do I make a "busy cursor" while my application is computing?
113) How do I query the user synchronously using Xt?
114) How do I fork without hanging my parent X program?
115) Why does XtAppAddInput not work as described?
116) How do I simulate a button press/release event for a widget?
117) Why doesn't anything appear when I run this simple program?
118) What is the difference between a Screen and a screen?
119)! Can I use C++ with X11? Motif? XView?
120)! Where can I obtain alternate language bindings to X?
121) How do I determine the name of an existing widget?
122) What widget is appropriate to use as a drawing canvas?
123) Why do I get a BadDrawable error drawing to XtWindow(widget)?
124) Can XGetWindowAttributes get a window's background pixel/pixmap?
125) Why doesn't GXxor produce mathematically-correct color values?
126) Why does every color I allocate show up as black?
127) Why does the pixmap I copy to the screen show up as garbage?
128)- How can my application iconify itself?
129) How do I check whether a window ID is valid?
130) Why can't my program work with tvtwm or swm?
131) Can I have two applications draw to the same window?
132) How do I keep a window from being resized by the user?
133) How do I make text and bitmaps blink in X?
134) How do I render rotated text?
135) Why can't my program get a standard colormap?
136) What is the X Registry? (How do I reserve names?)
If you have suggestions or corrections for any of these answers or any
additional information, please send them directly to xug@expo.lcs.mit.edu;
the information will be included in the next revision (or possibly the one
after that; thanks for the many suggestions which haven't been incorporated
yet).
This version of the FAQ is in the process of having R3 information replaced
by R5 information.
This posting is intended to be distributed at approximately the beginning of
each month. New versions may be archived on export.lcs.mit.edu, uunet, and
larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu.
The information contained herein has been gathered from a variety of sources. In
many cases attribution has been lost; if you would like to claim responsibility
for a particular item, please let us know.
Conventions used below: telephone numbers tend to be Bell-system unless
otherwise noted; prices on items are not included.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 0) TOPIC: BASIC INFORMATION SOURCES AND DEFINITIONS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 1)! What books and articles on X are good for beginners?
Ken Lee of the DEC Western Software Laboratory (klee@wsl.dec.com)
regularly posts to comp.windows.x and ba.windows.x a bibliography containing
cites of all known reference books and how-to manuals and also cites of
selected technical articles on X and X programming; it is ftp-able as
export.lcs.mit.edu:/contrib/Xbibliography and
gatekeeper.dec.com:/pub/X11/contrib/Xbibliography
Here is an unordered set of the reference books and tutorials most useful for
beginners; most appear on that list [comments are gathered from a variety of
places and are unattributable]:
Asente, Paul J., and Swick, Ralph R., "X Window System Toolkit, The Complete
Programmer's Guide and Specification", Digital Press, 1990. The bible on Xt. A
treasury of information, excellent and invaluable. Distributed by Digital
Press, ISBN 1-55558-051-3, order number EY-E757E-DP; and by Prentice-Hall,
ISBN 0-13-972191-6. Also available through DEC Direct at 1-800-DIGITAL.
[The examples are on export.lcs.mit.edu in contrib/ and on gatekeeper.dec.com
(16.1.0.2) in pub/X11/contrib as asente-swick.examples.tar.Z. They were also
posted to comp.sources.x as xt-examples/part0[1-5].]
Jones, Oliver, Introduction to the X Window System, Prentice-Hall, 1988, 1989.
ISBN 0-13-499997-5. An excellent introduction to programming with Xlib.
Written with the programmer in mind, this book includes many practical tips
that are not found anywhere else. This book is not as broad as the O'Reilly
Xlib tutorial, but Jones is an experienced X programmer and this shows in the
quality and depth of the material in the book. Originally written for X11R1,
recent printings have included corrections and additions and current material.
Young, Doug. "The X Window System: Applications and Programming with Xt (Motif
Version)," Prentice Hall, 1989 (ISBN 0-13-497074-8). The excellent tutorial
"X Window Systems Programming and Applications with Xt," (ISBN 0-13-972167-3)
updated for Motif. [The examples are available on export; the ones from the
Motif version are in ~ftp/contrib/young.motif.tar.Z.]
Young, Doug and John Pew, "The X Window System: Programming and Applications
with Xt, OPEN LOOK Edition" (ISBN 0-13-982992-X). The tutorial rewritten for
OLIT, with new examples and drag/drop information. [Examples are on export in
youg.olit.tar.Z.]
Heller, Dan. "Motif Programmers Manual". The 6th Volume in the O'Reilly series
covers Motif application programming; it's full of good examples. With Motif
reference pages. (ISBN 0-9937175-70-6.) [The examples are available on uunet
in comp.sources.x and nutshell archives.]
Scheifler, Robert, and James Gettys, with Jim Flowers and David Rosenthal, "X
Window System: The Complete Reference to Xlib, X Protocol, ICCCM, XLFD, X
Version 11, Release 5, Third Edition," Digital Press, 1992. "The Bible" in its
latest revision", an enhanced version of X documentation by the authors of the
Xlib documentation. This is the most complete published description of the X
programming interface and X protocol. It is the primary reference work and is
not introductory tutorial documentation; additional tutorial works will usually
be needed by most new X programmers. Digital Press order EY-J802E-DP, ISBN
0-13-971201-1.
Nye, Adrian, "Xlib Programming Manual, Volume 1" and "Xlib Reference Manual,
Volume 2," O'Reilly and Associates, 1988. A superset of the MIT X
documentation; the first volume is a tutorial with broad coverage of Xlib, and
the second contains reference pages for Xlib functions and many useful
reference appendices. ISBN 0-937175-26-9 (volume 1) and ISBN 0-937175-27-7
(volume 2). [A version updated for X11R4 is available (4/90).]
Nye, Adrian, and Tim O'Reilly, "X Toolkit Programming Manual, Volume 4,"
O'Reilly and Associates, 1989. The folks at O'Reilly give their comprehensive
treatment to programming with the MIT Intrinsics; R4 versions are now
available, as is a Motif 1.1 version (Volume 4M).
O'Reilly, Tim, ed., "X Toolkit Reference Manual, Volume 5," O'Reilly and
Associates, 1989. A professional reference manual for the MIT X11R3 Xt; some
information on X11R4 is included.
Mansfield, Niall. "The X Window System: A User's Guide," Addison-Wesley, 1989.
A tutorial introduction to using X, now upgraded for R4. ISBN 0-201-51341-2.
Miller, John David. "An Open Look at UNIX", M&T Books, 1990. An Xt book with
information on OLIT and the OPEN LOOK extensions to for interfacing with the
file and workspace managers. ISBN 1-55851-058-3 (with disk).
Quercia, Valerie and Tim O'Reilly. "X Window System User's Guide," O'Reilly and
Associates, 1989. A tutorial introduction to using X. ISBN 0-937175-36-6.
Also available in R4 and Motif flavors.
(Prentice-Hall ordering is 201-767-5937. O'Reilly ordering is 800-338-NUTS.)
In addition, check the X11R4 and X11R5 core distribution in doc/tutorials for
some useful papers and tutorials, particularly the file answers.txt. "Late
Night's Top Ten X11 Questions" by Dave Lemke (lemke@ncd.com) and Stuart Marks
(smarks@sun.com) answers other common questions and some of these here in more
detail.
New R5 versions of the O'Reilly references should be out in early 1992; volumes
1 and 4 should follow. Volume 4M will be updated when OSF ships 1.2. A single
volume "Programmer's Supplement for R5" by David Flanagan provides overview of
new R5 features; it includes man pages for Xlib, Xt, and Xmu. [ISBN
0-937175-86-2]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 2)! What courses on X and various X toolkits are available?
Advanced Computing Environments periodically offers at least a two-day
Introduction course. Contact Susie Karlson at 415-941-3399 for information.
AT&T offers training in Xlib and in the Xol set. Contact AT&T Corporate
Education & Training for more info; 1-800-TRAINER in the USA.
Communica Software Consultants offers three-day hands-on courses in X
designed for the X Window system developer and programmer. Contact Chris
Clarkson, telephone 61 8 4101442, e-mail communica@communica.oz.au. [5/91]
Cora Computer Technologies (516-485-7343) offers several courses.
GHCT offers a one week lecture/lab course for programmmers designed by
Douglas Young based on his book "The X Window System: Programming and Applica-
tions with Xt, OSF/Motif Edition". Information: Brian Stell (415-966-8805 or
ghct!brian@sgi.com).
GHG offers a range of courses. 713-488-8806.
Hewlett-Packard (1-800-HPCLASS; or contact your local HP center) offers
a 2-day "Introduction to X", a 5-day Xlib course, a 1-day Xt and Motif 1.1
seminar, and a 5-day Motif lab course.
Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc., offers several multi-day, hands-on
courses on X, Xt, and the Xaw and Motif widget sets, in particular. Information
is available at 617-621-0060 and info@ics.com.
Intelligent Visual Computing teaches several lab courses on-site for
Motif and XView. IVC is at 1-800-776-2810 or +1 919-481-1353 or at info@ivc.com.
Iris Computing Laboratories (615-886-3429) offers three- and five-day
Xlib and Xt courses.
IXI Limited (+44 223 462 131) offers regular X training courses for
both programmers and non-technical managers.
Learning Tree International offers a four-day course in X Window System
applications development, including Xlib and some information on Motif. For
more info call 800-824-9155 (213-417-3484); 613-748-7741 in Canada. Courses are
offered in major North American cities; also in London, Stockholm, Tokyo, and
elsewhere.
Lurnix offers 4-day "type-along courses" on Xt; the course is being
ported from Xaw to Xm. Information is available at 800-433-9337 (in CA: -9338).
Mitch Trachtenberg and Associates offers regular 5-day lab courses on
programming with OSF/Motif, usually in but not limited to Cambridge, MA.
Info: 1-800-735-UNIX or +1 617-225-0366, info@mta.com.
Non Standard Logics (+33 (1) 43 36 77 50; requests@nsl.fr) offers
courses on programming with Xlib, Motif, and creating Motif widgets.
OSF Educational Services (617-621-8778) offers one-day seminars and
one-week Motif lab courses.
Software Pundits (617-270-0639) offers a range of courses.
Technology Exchange (617-944-3700) offers a 4-day Xlib/Xt/Motif course.
TeleSoft is now offering a 1-day plus 3-day seminar on X and Motif.
Information: Bruce Sherman (619-457-2700, bds@telesoft.com).
Unipalm XTech offers OSF's 5-day Motif course and a 1-day overview on
X. Information: Unipalm Training at +44 952 211797, xtech@unipalm.co.uk.
Various other vendors are also beginning to offer X training, usually
specific to a proprietary toolkit or to Xt and a proprietary widget set: DEC
is offering Xlib courses; Sun offers an XView course.
Various universities are offering short X courses or overviews: UCLA,
Dartmouth, University of Lowell, University of Canberra (within Australia:
062-522422) ...
UC Berkeley Extension will have a one week X/Motif class for
programmers in San Francisco starting on July 29. The class will have a
hands-on lab. For more information contact UCBX at 415 323 8141.
Among the best places to find courses are at the various Unix
conferences -- Uniforum, Usenix, Unix Expo, Xhibition, the MIT X Technical
Conference, the ACM tutorial weeks, &c.
In addition, the X Consortium posts approximately monthly a list of
unendorsed speakers who can provide talks on a variety of X topics.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 3)! What conferences on X are coming up?
The XWorld Conference and Exhibition, with tutorials, panels,
presentations and vendor exhibs, will be held at the New York Sheraton April
27-30, 1992. Information: SIGS Publication Group at (212) 274-9135.
The Xhibition 92 X trade show and conference, with tutorials, panels,
presentations, and vendor exhibits, will be held at the San Jose Convention
Center June 13-16, 1992. Information: +1 617 621 0060, xhibit@ics.com.
The European X User Group Annual Conference is slated for Fall of 1992
in Heidelberg. It typically includes includes paper presentations and a vendor
exhibit. Information: exug@unipalm.co.uk, +44 954 211860.
The Motif92 show is being held in Washington, to coincide with the
FedUnix and the Federal Open Systems Conference. Information:
motif91@fedunix.org, 301-229-1062.
The MIT X Technical Conference is typically held in January in Boston,
mostly for historical reasons. Registration information usually is available
from registration@expo.lcs.mit.edu.
Other trade shows -- UnixExpo, Uniforum, Siggraph -- show an increasing
presence of X, including tutorials and exhibits.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 4)! What X-related public mailing lists are available?
The xpert mailing list is the general, public mailing list on X
maintained by the X Consortium. The mailings are gatewayed, so xpert is almost
identical to the comp.windows.x Usenet newsgroup.
*** If you get comp.windows.x, you don't need to ***
*** be added to the xpert mailing list. ***
Otherwise, you can join the list to receive X information
electronically. It is best to find a local distribution; perhaps someone within
your company is already receiving the mailing. As a last resort, send mail to
xpert-request@expo.lcs.mit.edu with a valid return electronic address.
The xannounce mailing list carries major X announcements, such as new
releases (including public patches from MIT), public reviews, adoption of
standards by the MIT X Consortium, and conference announcements. It does NOT
carry advertisements, source code, patches, or questions. If you already
receive the Usenet news group comp.windows.x.announce or the xpert mailing list,
you don't need to be added to the xannounce mailing list. Otherwise, to
subscribe, send a request to xannounce-request@expo.lcs.mit.edu. Note: Only
redistribution addresses will be accepted for this list -- i.e. no personal
addresses. If you wish to receive xannounce yourself, please contact your mail
administrator to set up a local redistribution list and to put you on it.
In addition, the X Consortium sponsors these public lists:
bug-clx CLX bug reports and discussions
x-ada X and ada
x11-3d people interested in X and 3d graphics
ximage people interested in image processing and X
xvideo discussion of video extensions for X
To subscribe to one of these lists, assuming no-one in your
organization already receives it, send mail to <list>-request@expo.lcs.mit.edu
with the Subject line including the name of the LIST in caps and the request
"addition request". In the body of the message be sure to give an address for
your local distribution which is accessible from MIT (eddie.mit.edu).
A mailing list for topics related to OPEN LOOK is sponsored by Greg
Pasquariello of Unify corporation; send to openlook-request@unify.com (or
openlook-request%unify@uunet.uu.net) for information.
A mailing list for bugs in the publicly-available version of XView
source, in particular, is sponsored by Sun; send for information to
xviewbug-trackers-request@sun.com.
A mailing list for topics related to Motif is sponsored by Kee Hinckley
of Alfalfa Software, Inc.; send to motif-request@alfalfa.com for information.
(This group is gatewayed to comp.windows.x.motif.)
A mailing list for topics related to the XPM pixmap-format is sponsored
by Arnaud Le Hors of Group Bull; send to xpm-talk-request@sa.inria.fr for
information. [1/91]
A mailing list discussing InterViews can be subscribed to by sending to
interviews-request@interviews.stanford.edu.
A mailing list (amiga-x11@nic.funet.fi) for topics related to the port
of X11 to the Amiga can be subscribed by sending to mailserver@nic.funet.fi a
message containing
Subject: Adding myself to AMIGA-X11
SUBS AMIGA-X11 Your Real Name
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 5) What related FAQs are available?
Liam R. E. Quin (lee@sq.sq.com) posts an FAQ list on Open Look to
comp.windows.x.
Jan Newmarch (jan@pandonia.canberra.edu.au) posts an FAQ list on Motif
to comp.windows.x.motif.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 6) How do I ask a net-question so as to maximize helpful responses?
When asking for help on the net or X mailing lists, be sure to include
all information about your setup and what you are doing. The more specific you
are, the more likely someone will spot an error in what you are doing. Without
all the details, people who want to help you often have to guess -- if they are
able to respond at all.
Always mention what version of X you are using and where you got it
from. If your server came from a different source as the rest of your X system,
give details of that, too. Give the machine type, operating system, and O/S
version for both the client and server machine. It may also be appropriate to
mention the window manager, compiler, and display hardware type you are using.
Then tell exactly what you are doing, exactly what happens, and what
you expected/wanted to happen. If it is a command that fails, include the
exact transcript of your session in the message. If a program you wrote
doesn't work the way you expect, include as little of the source necessary
(just a small test case, please!) for readers to reproduce the problem.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 7)! What publications discussing X are available?
The trade magazines (Unix World, Unix Review, Computer Language, etc.)
are publishing more articles on X. Two X-specific publications include:
- O'Reilly and Associates publishes "The X Resource: A Practical
Journal of the X Window System" (632 Petaluma Ave., Sebastapol, CA 95472).
Editorial information: Adrian Nye, adrian@ora.com.
- The X Journal is started bi-monthly publication September 1991 on a
variety of X topics. Subscription information: The X Journal, Subscriber
Services, Dept XXX, P.O. BOX 3000, Denville, NJ 07834, USA.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 8) How can I meet other X developers?
- Local Area X User's Groups include: [this list is always in the
process of being updated; some of these groups are known to be zombies]:
Atlanta James Tio, 404-441-4784
Bay Area, CA Jim Turner, 415-960-0123
Boston Jim O'Loughlin, xug@ics.com 617-621-0060
Chicago Jerry Walton, 219-736-2667
Cleveland Mike Kolberg, 216/243-1198
Colorado Jim West, 719/260-3463,west@widgit.enet.dec.com
South Florida ("SFXUG") Gary M. Paxinos, 407-243-2405, pax@megasys.com
Bill Rothanburg, 305-970-7353, wcr@metrolink.com
Mahesh Neelakanta, mahesh@shark.cs.fau.edu
To be added to the mailing list send "help" to
listserv@ankh.ftl.fl.us
Houston Dinah G. McNutt, dinah@bcm.tmc.edu
713-798-5890
Huntsville, Ala. Pete Shea 205-837-9230
Los Angeles ("LAX") Debbie Catalano, catalano@inference.com,
213-322-5004 x194
Michigan ("MIX") JT Vogt, JLV@MD-DET.Prime.COM, (313) 689-0100
or Brian Smithson (313) 354-5118
Pittsburgh, PA John Kochmar, kochmar@sei.cmu.edu
(412)268-6396
Princeton, NJ Joe Camaratta, 609-734-6500
Research Triangle Park Steven Thiedke, 919/481-1353
Washington, DC Thomas Fagre, 703/866-7425
Canada Ken Ristevski, 416-470-1203
Cambridge, UK Ray Anderson, +44 223 462131
Israel Warren Burstein, warren@worlds.uu.net
Yosi Ben-Harosh, +972 52 522266
Milan, Italy Richard Glover, (39) 961-743-486
Singapore Chee Keong Law, 772-3116
ISSLCK%NUSVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
In addition, there are meetings of these groups:
- Bay Area Motif Developers Group and Drinking Society
Ron Edmark edmark@isi.com
The French X User Group is called AFUX and is based in Sophia Antipolis
by CERICS. Information can be obtained from Miss Vasseur or Miss Forest; BP
148; 157, rue Albert Einstein; 06561 Valbonne Cedex; Phone: +33 93 95 45 00 /
45 01; Fax: +33 93 95 48 57. [10/90]
The European X User Group was formed in 1989 to represent X users in
Europe. It holds technical conferences at regular intervals. The EXUG also
publishes a regular newsletter which is distributed free of charge to members.
The EXUG also runs a email mailing list for members which is frequently used to
address issues of European interest in X. The EXUG can be contacted by email
at: exug@unipalm.uucp or by snail mail at: The EXUG, Mitchell House, 185 High
Street, Cottenham, Cambridge CB4 4RX, UK; phone +44 954 51727.
[from Bevis King (brwk@doc.ic.ac.uk), 4/90]
GXUGiV is the German X User's Group in Vorbereitung ("in preparation")
being formed for X programmers and users; it is associated with the EXUG. All
interested should contact Olaf Heimburger (+49 30 7 79 54 64; and at
mcvax!unido!tub!olaf).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 9) What are these common abbreviations?
Xt: The X Toolkit Intrinsics is a library layered on Xlib which
provides the functionality from which the widget sets are built. An "Xt-based"
program is an application which uses one of those widget sets and which uses
Intrinsics mechanisms to manipulate the widgets.
Xmu: The Xmu library is a collection of Miscellaneous Utility functions
useful in building various applications and widgets.
Xaw: The Athena Widget Set is the MIT-implemented sample widget set
distributed with X11 source.
Xm: The OSF/Motif widget set from the Open Software Foundation; binary
kits are available from many hardware vendors.
Xhp (Xw): The Hewlett-Packard Widget Set was originally based on R2++,
but several sets of patches exist which bring it up to R3, as it is distributed
on the X11R4 tapes. Supplemental patches are available to use it with R4/R5.
CLX: The Common Lisp X Interface is a Common Lisp equivalent to Xlib.
XDMCP: The X Display Manager Protocol provides a uniform mechanism for
a display such as an X terminal to request login service from a remote host.
XLFD: The X Logical Font Description Conventions describes a standard
logical font description and conventions to be used by clients so that they
can query and access those resources.
RTFM: Common expert-speak meaning "please locate and consult the
relevant documentation -- Read the Forgotten Manual".
UTSL: A common expression meaning "take advantage of the fact that you
aren't limited by a binary license -- Use The Source, Luke".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 10) What is the ICCCM? (How do I write X-friendly applications?)
The Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual is one of the
official X Consortium standards documents that define the X environment. It
describes the conventions that clients must observe to coexist peacefully with
other clients sharing the same server. If you are writing X clients, you need
to read and understand the ICCCM, in particular the sections discussing the
selection mechanism and the interaction between your client and the window
manager. Get it either:
- as part of the R4 distribution from MIT.
- in the 2nd edition of the Scheifler/Gettys "X Window System" book.
- as an appendix in the new version of O'Reilly's Volume 0, "X Protocol
Reference Manual." A version in old copies of their Volume 1 is obsolete.
The version in the DP book is much more readable, thanks to the efforts
of Digital's editors to improve the English and the presentation.
[from David Rosenthal, 10/90]
- the ICCCM was updated for R5; updates are published in O'Reilly's
"Programmer's Supplement for Release 5". The complete document is on the R5
tapes.
Alternate definition: the ICCCM is generally the M in "RTFM" and is
the most-important of the least-read X documents.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 11) What is the X Consortium, and how do I join?
The MIT X Consortium was formed in January of 1988 to further the
development of the X Window System and has as its major goal the promotion of
cooperation within the computer industry in the creation of standard software
interfaces at all layers in the X Window System environment.
MIT's role is to provide the vendor-neutral architectural and
administrative leadership required to make this work. Membership in the
Consortium open to any organization. There are two categories of membership,
Member (for large organizations) and Affiliate (for smaller organizations).
Most of the Consortium's activities take place via electronic mail,
with meetings when required. As designs and specifications take shape,
interest groups are formed from experts in the participating organizations.
Typically a small multi-organization architecture team leads the design, with
others acting as close observers and reviewers. Once a complete specification
is produced, it may be submitted for formal technical review by the Consortium
as a proposed standard. The standards process typically includes public
review (outside the Consortium) and a demonstration of proof of concept.
Your involvement in the public review process or as a Member or
Affiliate of the Consortium is welcomed.
Write to: Bob Scheifler, MIT X Consortium, Laboratory for Computer
Science, 545 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139.
[For complete information see the XCONSORTIUM man page from the X11R4
distribution, from which this information is adapted.] [2/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 12) Just what are OPEN LOOK and Motif?
OPEN LOOK and Motif are two graphical user interfaces (GUIs). OPEN LOOK
was developed by Sun with help from AT&T and many industry reviewers; Motif was
developed by the Open Software Foundation (OSF) with input from many OSF
members.
OPEN LOOK is primarily a user-interface specification and style-guide;
there are several toolkits which can be used to produce OPEN LOOK applications.
Motif includes an API specification; the only sanctioned Motif toolkit is the
one from OSF. However, there are other toolkits which can be used to produce
programs which look and behave like OSF/Motif; one of these, Solbourne's OI, is
a "virtual toolkit" which provides a common subset of OPEN LOOK and Motif, at
the user's choice.
OPEN LOOK GUI is also the name of a product from AT&T, comprising
their OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit and a variety of applications.
[Thanks to Ian Darwin, ian@sq.com, 5/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 13) Just what is OpenWindows?
Open Windows (2.0) is a Sun product that encompasses: a window system
that combines a NeWS and X11R4-compliant server (X/NeWS); a user-interface
specification (OPEN LOOK) and a series of toolkits that implement it (including
the SunView-like XView and the Xt-based OLIT); Xlib and Xt implementations; and
a number of utilities (olwm window manager, filemgr, shelltool, etc.).
[thanks to Frank Greco (fgreco@govt.shearson.COM), 8/90]
Sun has announced [11/90] the limited availability in source form of
major portions of the OpenWindows release.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 14) Just what is DECWindows?
DECWindows is a DEC product that encompasses: an X11 server; the XUI
toolkit, including the Dwt widget set and UIL; Xlib and Xt implementations; a
session manager; and a number of utilities (dxwm window manager, dxcalendar,
dxpsview, etc.).
(At some point Motif flavors of the toolkit and applications will be shipped.)
[8/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 15) What is PEX?
PEX is the "PHiGS Extension to X".
PHiGS stands for "Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics
System" and is essentially a library of functions that simplifies the creation
and manipulation of 3D graphics. Many platforms are capable of performing in
hardware the computations involved in rendering 3D objects; the extension
allows the client (PHiGS in this case) to take advantage of the specialized
hardware for 3D graphics.
Sun Microsystems is currently contracted to develop a freely
redistributable (copyright similar to the current X copyright) sample
implementation. Source and documentation are available in the R5 release.
Several vendors are currently selling independently-developed PEX servers for
their workstations and X terminals.
[last modified 10/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 16) TOPIC: USING X IN DAY-TO-DAY LIFE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 17) What are all these different window managers?
The window manager in X is just another client -- it is not part of the
X window system, although it enjoys special privileges -- and so there is
no single window manager; instead, there are many which support different ways
for the user to interact with windows and different styles of window layout,
decoration, and keyboard and colormap focus. In approximate chronological order
(generally, the more recent ones are more conformant with the ICCCM):
wm: this simple title-bar window manager was phased out in R2 or R3
uwm: the Universal Window Manager is still popular for its speed,
although it is very outdated. Moved to contrib/ on the R4 tape.
twm (old): Tom's Window Manager was among the first non-MIT window
managers and offered the user a great deal of customization options in a
re-parenting window manager.
awm: the Ardent Window Manager remains a hotbed for hackers and offers
some features (dynamic menus) not found on more current window managers
cwm: cwm is part of the Andrew system. Notable for being the only
window manager whose name is also an English word.
rtl: Siemen's window manager tiles windows so that they don't overlap
and resizes the window with the focus to its preferred size.
dxwm: Digital's dxwm is part of the DECwindows offering
hpwm: HP's window manager offers a 3D look; it is a precursor of mwm
mwm: the Motif window manager is part of the OSF/Motif toolkit
tekwm: Tektronix's window manager offering
olwm (Sun): olwm implements the OPEN LOOK GUI and some of the Style
Guide functionality
olwm (AT&T): ditto
gwm: Bull's Generic Window Manager emulates others with a built-in
Lisp interpreter. Version 1.7h (10/91) is on the R5 contrib tape; 1.7k is on
avahi.inria.fr and export.lcs.mit.edu. [2/92]
m_swm: the Sigma window manager is on the R4 tape
pswm: Sun's PostScript-based pswm is part of the OpenWindows release
swm: Solbourne's swm is based on its OI toolkit and offers multiple
GUI support and also a panned virtual window; configuration information comes
from the resources file
twm (new): MIT's new Tab Window Manager from the R4 tape is a reworked
twm and is the basis for several derivatives, including the one on the R5 tape
vtwm: vtwm offers some of the virtual-desktop features of swm, with a
single-root window implementation; it is based on the R4 twm and is available
on archive servers
tvtwm: Tom's Virtual Tab Window Manager is also based on the R4 twm
and provides a virtual desktop modeled on the virtual-root window of swm. It is
available on archive servers
olvwm: the vtwm-style virtual-desktop added to Sun's olwm. It is
available on archive servers; version 3.0 [1/92] is on export.
mvwm: the vtwm-style virtual-desktop added to OSF's mwm. A beta version
is floating around but requires a source license to OSF/Motif.
NCDwm: the window manager local to NCD terminals offers an mwm look
XDSwm: the window manager local to Visual Technology's terminals
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 18) Why does my X session exit when I kill my window manager?
It needn't. What is probably happening is that you are running your
window manager as the last job in your .xsession or .xinitrc file; your X
session runs only as long as the last job is running, and so killing your
window manager is equivalent to logging out. Instead, run the window manager in
the background, and as the last job instead invoke something safe like:
exec xterm -name Login -rv -iconic
Your X session will continue until you explicitly logout of this window,
whether or not you kill or restart your window manager.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 19)! Can I save the state of my X session, like toolplaces does?
Although no known window manager directly supports such a feature --
which may be equivalent to writing out a .xinitrc or .xsession file naming the
geometry and WM_COMMAND of each application -- (but olvwm may have something
close), there is a contributed application which does much of what you are
looking for, although it is not as complete as the SunView program toolplaces.
Look for the application "xplaces" on an archive-server near you. There are
several versions of this program floating around; look for a recent vintage.
[10/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 20) How do I use another window manager with DEC's session manager?
DEC's session manager will start dxwm up by default. To override this,
add to your .Xdefaults file something like this line, naming the full pathname:
sm.windowManagerName: /wherever/usr/bin/X11/your_favorite_wm
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 21) How do I change the keyboard auto-repeat rate?
You can turn auto-repeat on or off by using "xset r on|off". The X
protocol, however, doesn't provide for varying the auto-repeat rate, which is
a capability not supported by all systems.
Some servers running on systems that support this (the Xsun server from
MIT, for example), however, may provide command-line flags to set the rate at
start-up time. If you have control over server start-up, you can invoke the
server with the chosen settings.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 22)! How do I remap the keys on my keyboard to produce a string?
There is no method of arranging for a particular string to be
produced when you press a particular key. The xmodmap client, which is useful
for moving your CTRL and ESC keys to useful places, just rearranges keys and
does not do "macro expansion."
Some (few) clients, including xterm and several X-based editors,
accept a translation resource such as:
xterm*VT100.Translations: #override \
<Key>F1: string("setenv DISPLAY unix:0")
which permits the shorthand F1 to be pressed to reset the display locally
within an xterm; it takes effect for new xterm clients. To include control
characters in the string, use \nnn, where nnn is the octal encoding of the
control character you want to include.
Window managers, which could provide this facility, do not yet; nor
has a special "remapper" client been made available.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 23) How do I make a screendump of the X display?
The xwd client in the X11 distributions can be used to select a window
or the background. It produces an XWD-format file of the image of that window.
The file can be post-processed into something useful or printed with the xpr
client and your local printing mechanism. You can use this command:
csh% sleep 10; xwd -root > output.xwd &
and then spend 10 seconds or so setting up your screen; the entire current
display will be saved into the file output.xwd. Note that xwd also has an
undocumented (before R5) -id flag for specifying the window id on the
command-line.
Two publicly-available programs which allow interactive definition of
arbitrary portions of the display and built-in delays are asnap and xgrabsc.
There are several versions of xgrabsc; version 1.5, available on export [12/91]
is the most recent.
xsnap includes some asnap features and supersedes it; it also renders
XPM output [version unknown]. It is available on export, as well. [11/90]
Also: some vendors' implementations of X (e.g. DECWindows and
OpenWindows 2.0) include session managers or other desktop programs which
include "print portion of screen" or "take a snapshot" options. Some X
terminals have local screen-dump utilities to write PostScript to a local
serial printer.
Also: some platforms have tools which can be used to grab the
frame-buffer directly. The Sun systems, for example, have a 'screendump'
program which produces a Sun raster file.
Some vendors' implementations of lpr (e.g. Sony) include direct
support for printing xwd files, but you'll typically need some other package
to massage the output into a useful format which you can get to the printer:
To post-process the xwd output of some of these tools, you can use xpr,
which is part of the X11 distribution. Also on several archives are xwd2ps
and XtoPS, which produce Encapsulated PostScript with trimmings suitable for
use in presentations (see export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/xwd2ps.tar.Z and
contrib/ImageMagick.tar.Z). Also useful is the PBMPLUS package on many archive
servers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 24) How do I make a color PostScript screendump of the X display?
If you need color PostScript in particular, you can
- grab the screen-image using xgrabsc to begin with, which can produce
color PostScript.
- grab the screen-image using xwd and post-process xwd into color PS.
You can do this using xwd2ps or the XtoPS program from the ImageMagick
distribution. The PBMPLUS package is also good for this.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 25) How can I print the current selection?
You could paste it into an xterm after executing the lpr command.
However, a program by Richard Hesketh (rlh2@ukc.ac.uk) specifically for
manipulating the selection will help; e.g.
xselection PRIMARY | lpr
finds the primary selection and prints it. This command can be placed in a
window-manager menu or in shell-scripts. xselection also permits the setting of
the selection and other properties. A version is on export.
Also available is ria.ccs.uwo.ca:pub/xget_selection.tar.Z, which can be
adapted to do this.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 26)! How to I have the R4 xdm put a picture behind the log-in window?
The answer lies in changing xdm's xrdb resource in the xdm-config file to run a
program to change the background before loading the resources; for example,
your /usr/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-config file may add the line
DisplayManager.0.authorize: false
to permit unrestricted access to the display before log-in (beware!) and also
DisplayManager*xrdb: /usr/lib/X11/xdm/new.xrdb
where that file does something (for all connections) along the lines of:
#!/bin/sh
#comes in with arguments: -display :0 -load /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xresources
/usr/bin/X11/xsetroot -display $2 -bitmap /usr/lib/X11/xdm/new.bitmap
/usr/bin/X11/xrdb $*
Substitute xloadimage or xv for xsetroot, to taste. Note that this is a
general hack that can be used to invoke a console window or any other client.
[Thanks to Jay Bourland (jayb@cauchy.stanford.edu), 9/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 27) Why are my xterm menus so small?
You are probably setting the geometry small accidentally. If you give
a resource specification like this:
xterm*geometry: 80x24
then you are asking for all widgets under xterm to have their geometry set to
80x24. For the main window, this is OK, as it uses characters for its size.
But its popup menus don't; they are in pixels and show up small. To set only
the terminal widget to have the specified geometry, name it explicitly:
xterm*VT100.geometry: 80x24
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 28) Where can I find a dictionary server for xwebster?
Webster's still owns the copyright to the on-line copies of Webster's
Dictionary which are found at various (university) sites. After it became aware
that these sites were then acting as servers for other sites running xwebster
and gnuemacs-webster, it asked that server sites close off external access.
[The NeXT machine apparently is also licensed to have the dictionary. A
Webster daemon for NeXT machines is available from iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
(129.79.254.192) in "pub/webster/NeXT-2.0".]
Unless you want to get a legal on-line copy yourself or can find a site
which can grant you access, you are probably out of luck.
However, if you are a legitimate site, you'll want to pick up the
latest xwebster, as-is on export:contrib/xwebster.tar.Z [10/91]; the file
xwebster.README includes discussions of the availability, illegality, and
non-availability of dictionary servers.
[courtesy steve@UMIACS.UMD.EDU (Steve Miller) and mayer@hplabs.hp.com (Niels
Mayer) 11/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 29) How do I convert/view Mac/TIFF/GIF/Sun/PICT/img/FAX images in X?
The likeliest program is an incarnation of Jef Poskanzer's useful++
Portable Bitmap Toolkit, which includes a number of programs for converting
among various image formats. It includes support for many types of bitmaps,
gray-scale images, and full-color images. PBMPLUS has been updated recently;
the most recent version [12/91] is on export in contrib/pbmplus10dec91.tar.Z.
Another tool is San Diego Supercomputing Center's IMtools ('imconv' in
particular), which packages the functionality of PBM into a single binary.
It's available anonymous ftp from sdsc.edu (132.249.20.22).
Useful for viewing some image-formats is Jim Frost's xloadimage, a
version of which is in the R4 directory contrib/clients/xloadimage -- there
are later versions available; version 3.0.1 shipped 5/91 and is on export
/contrib/xloadimage.3.01.tar.Z. A major new release of xloadimage is planned;
in the mean-time, Graeme Gill's updates may hold you: see xli.README and
xli.tar.Z.uu on export.lcs.mit.edu.
An alternate image-viewer is xv (X Image Viewer), written by
bradley@cis.upenn.edu (John Bradley). XV displays many image formats and
permits editing of GIF files, among others. The program was updated 1/92; see
the file contrib/xv-2.00.tar.Z on export.lcs.mit.edu.
The Fuzzy Pixmap Manipulation, by Michael Mauldin <mlm@nl.cs.cmu.edu>.
Conversion and manipulation package, similar to PBMPLUS. Version 1.0 available
via FTP as nl.cs.cmu.edu:/usr/mlm/ftp/fbm.tar.Z, uunet.uu.net:pub/fbm.tar.Z,
and ucsd.edu:graphics/fbm.tar.Z.
The Img Software Set, by Paul Raveling <raveling@venera.isi.edu>, reads
and writes its own image format, displays on an X11 screen, and does some image
manipulations. Version 1.3 is available via FTP on expo.lcs.mit.edu as
contrib/img_1.3.tar.Z, along with large collection of color images.
Xim, by Philip R. Thompson, reads and writes its own image format,
displays on an X11 screen, and does some image manipulations. Available in
your nearest X11R4 source tree as contrib/clients/xim. A more recent version
is available via ftp from video.mit.edu. It uses x11r4 and the OSF/Motif
toolkit to provide basic interactive image manipulation and reads/writes GIF,
xwd, xbm, tiff, rle, xim, and other formats.
ImageMagick by cristy@dupont.com can be retrieved as the file
contrib/ImageMagick.tar.Z (no patch level) from export.lcs.mit.edu. It is a
collection of utilities to transform and display images on any X server. The
tool uses the MIFF format; filters to and from MIFF from other popular formats
(PPM, TIFF, GIF, SUN Raster, etc) are included.
xtiff is a tool for viewing a TIFF file in an X window. It was written
to handle as many different kinds of TIFF files as possible while remaining
simple, portable and efficient. xtiff illustrates some common problems
with building pixmaps and using different visual classes. It is distributed
as part of Sam Leffler's libtiff package and it is also available on
export.lcs.mit.edu, uunet.uu.net and comp.sources.x. [dbs@decwrl.dec.com,10/90]
xtiff 2.0 was announced in 4/91; it includes Xlib and Xt versions.
A version of Lee Iverson's (leei@McRCIM.McGill.EDU) image-viewing tool
is available as contrib/vimage-0.9.1.tar.Z on export.lcs.mit.edu. The package
also includes an ImageViewPort widget and a FileDialog widget. [12/91]
[some material from Larry Carroll (larryc@poe.jpl.nasa.gov), 5/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 30) How can I change the titlebar of my xterm window?
The solution involves sending an escape sequence to xterm which will
cause it to update the property which the window manager relies upon for the
string which appears in the window titlebar.
A solution is as easy as typing this in an xterm running a shell:
echo "ESC]2;TEXT^G"
where ESC is the escape key, TEXT is the string you wish to have displayed,
and ^G is a Control-G (the BEL character).
Here is a more complicated csh alias which changes the titlebar to
the current working directory when you change directories:
alias newcd 'cd \!*; echo -n ESC]2\;$cwd^G'
The digit '2' in these strings indicates to xterm that it should
change only the title of the window; to change both the title and the name
used in the icon, use the digit '0' instead, and use '1' to change only the
icon name.
Note: another way to do this, which prevents an incorrect display of
the local directory if a modified `cd` is used in a subshell, is to wrap the
escape sequences into the PS1 prompt itself.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 31) Where can I find the xterm control sequences?
The best source of such information is in your R5 sources in the file
ctlseqs.ms; a PostScript version is in mit/hardcopy/clients/ctlseqs.PS.Z.
Other good sources of information include the R4 version of that document
and also the file in the R4 sources called mit/clients/xterm/ctlseq2.txt, a
compilation put together by Skip Montanaro (GE CR&D) listing the VT100
sequences. It dates from R3 but is fairly accurate. A hardcopy version was
published in the December 1989 XNextEvent (the XUG newsletter).
In addition, Volume 3 (User's Guide) of the R4 flavor of the O'Reilly
X Window System series contains an appendix listing xterm control sequences;
it is less accurate than the information in the R5 or R4 sources.
In a pinch, a VT100 manual will do.
[last updated 10/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 32) How do I keep my $DISPLAY when I rlogin to another machine?
There are several ways to avoid having to do a "setenv DISPLAY ..."
whenever you log in to another networked UNIX machine running X.
One solution is to use the clients/xrsh on the R5 contrib tape. It
includes xrsh, a script to start an X application on remote machine, and
xrlogin, a script to start a local xterm running rlogin to a remote machine.
One solution is to use the xrlogin program from der Mouse
(mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu). You can ftp caveat-emptor versions from
132.206.1.1, in X/xrlogin.c and X/xrlogind.c. The program packages up $TERM and
$DISPLAY into a single string, which is stuffed into $TERM. rlogin then
propagates $TERM normally; your .cshrc on the remote machine should contain
eval `xrlogind`
where xrlogind is a program that checks $TERM and if it is of the special
format it recognizes, unpacks it and spits out setenv and unsetenv commands to
recreate the environment variables. [11/90]
In addition, if all you need to do is start a remote X process on
another host, and you find
rsh <HOST> -n /usr/bin/X11/xterm -display $DISPLAY
too simple (DISPLAY must have your real hostname), then this version of xrsh
can be used to start up remote X processes. The equivalent usage would be
xrsh <HOST> xterm
#! /bin/sh
# start an X11 process on another host
# Date: 8 Dec 88 06:29:34 GMT
# From: Chris Torek <chris@mimsy.umd.edu>
# rsh $host -n "setenv DISPLAY $DISPLAY; exec $@ </dev/null >&/dev/null"
#
# An improved version:
# rXcmd (suggested by John Robinson, jr@bbn.com)
# (generalized for sh,ksh by Keith Boyer, keith@cis.ohio-state.edu)
#
# but they put the rcmd in ()'s which left zombies again. This
# script combines the best of both.
case $# in
[01]) echo "Usage: $0 host x-cmd [args...]";;
*)
case $SHELL in
*csh*) host="$1"; shift
xhost "$host" > /dev/null
rsh "$host" -n \
"setenv TERM xterm; setenv DISPLAY `hostname`:0; \
exec $* </dev/null >& /dev/null" &
;;
*sh)
host="$1"; shift
xhost "$host" > /dev/null
rsh "$host" -n \
"TERM=xterm export TERM; \
DISPLAY=`hostname`:0 export DISPLAY; \
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/X11/lib export LD_LIBRARY_PATH; \
PATH=\$PATH:/usr/X11/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/local/bin; \ export PATH; \
exec $* < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1" &
;;
esac
;;
esac
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 33)! How can I design my own font?
One way is to use the "bitmap" client or some other bitmap-editor (e.g.
Sun's icon-editor tool, post-processed with pbmplus) to design the individual
characters and then to do some large amount of post-processing to concatenate
them into the BDF format. See Ollie Jones article in the November 91 X Journal
for more information.
The R3 contrib/ area (in fonts/utils/ and in clients/xtroff) contained
a number of useful utilities, including some to convert between BDF font format
and a simple character format which can be edited with any text editor.
An easier way is to use the "xfed" client to modify an existing font; a
version is on the R4 or R5 X11R5 contrib tape in contrib/clients/xfed. Xfed is
available for anonymous ftp on ftp.Informatik.Uni-Dortmund.DE [129.217.64.63],
possibly as file /pub/windows/X/Diverse-X11-Sourcen/xfed.tar.Z. It can produce
BDF-format fonts which can be compiled for a variety of X servers.
The xfedor client from Group Bull permits creation of bitmaps, cursors,
XPM1 pixmaps, and fonts. Binaries for common machines are on avahi.inria.fr in
/pub; in addition, the sources (an old Xlib implementation) have been placed
[5/91] in export:/contrib.
If you are a MetaFont user you can use "mftobdf" from the SeeTeX
distribution to convert PK, GF, and PXL fonts to BDF format; the distribution
is on foobar.colorado.edu and on export.lcs.mit.edu.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 34)! Why does adding a font to the server not work?
After you have built the font using your system's font-compiler,
installed it in some directory, and run `mkfontdir` or your system's equivalent
in that directory, be sure to use `xset +fp $dir` to add that full path-name to
the server's font-path, *or* if the directory is already in the path, use
`xset fp rehash` so that the new fonts in that directory are actually found; it
is this last step that you're probably leaving out. (You can also use `xset q`
to make sure that that directory is in the path.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 35) How do I convert a ".snf" font back to ".bdf" font?
A tool called "snftobdf 1.4" is part of the bdftools package, which is
available from export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/bdftools.tar.Z and from
crl.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/bdftools.tar.Z. Sources have been posted to fj.sources on
JUNET and should be appearing on comp.sources.x. [2/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 36)! What is a general method of getting a font in usable format?
der Mouse's getbdf is one solution; it connects to a server and
produces a .BDF file for any font the server is willing to let it. It can be
used as an anything-to-BDF converter, but requires access to a server that can
understand the font file, thus is both more and less powerful than other tools
such as snftobdf. getbdf is on 132.206.1.1 in X/getbdf.c or available via mail
from mouse@larry.McRCIM.McGill.EDU. [5/91]
In addition, the R5 program "fstobdf" can produce bdf for any font that
the R5 server has access to.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 37)- How do I use HP ".scf" fonts on my MIT R4 server?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 38)- How do I use DECwindows ".pcf" fonts on my MIT R4 server?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 39) How do I use DECwindows fonts on my non-DECwindows server?
The DECwindows fonts typically don't exist on a non-DEC installation,
but rewrite rules can be used to alias fonts used by DECwindows applications to
standard MIT fonts of similar characteristics and size. Pick up the file
contrib/DECwindows_on_X11R4_font.aliases from export.lcs.mit.edu; this file is
for a standard MIT R4 server. It can also serve as a starting point for
creating a similar aliases file for the Open Windows server or other servers
which do not use the MIT font scheme.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 40) How do I add ".bdf" fonts to my DECwindows server?
The format of fonts preferred by DEC's X server is the ".pcf" format.
You can produce this compiled format from the .bdf format by using DEC's dxfc
font-compiler. Note that the DEC servers can also use raw .bdf fonts, with a
performance hit.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 41) How can I set the backgroundPixmap resource in a defaults file?
I want to be able to do something like this:
xclock*backgroundPixmap: /usr/include/X11/bitmaps/rootweave
You can't do this. The backgroundPixmap resource is a pixmap of the
same depth as the screen, not a bitmap (which is a pixmap of depth 1). Because
of this, writing a generic String to Pixmap converter is impossible, since
there is no accepted convention for a file format for pixmaps. Therefore,
neither the X Toolkit or the Athena widget set define a String to Pixmap
converter, because there is no converter you cannot specify this value as a
resource. The Athena widget set does define a String to Bitmap converter for
use in many of its widgets, however.
[courtesy Chris D. Peterson (now kit@ics.com), 4/90]
However:
A specific converter which encapsulates much of the functionality of
the xloadimage package by Jim Frost was posted 12/90 by Sebastian Wangnick
(basti@unido.informatik.uni-dortmund.de); it permits loading of a number of
image formats as a pixmap.
The leading general-purpose format for pixmaps is the XPM format used
by Groupe Bull in several of its programs, including the GWM window manager, by
AT&T in its olpixmap editor, and by ICS in its interface builder. XPM
distribution, available on export as contrib/xpm.tar.Z, includes read/write
routines which can easily be adapted to converters by new widgets which want to
allow specification of pixmap resources in the above manner. See information
on the xpm-talk mailing list above. XPM 3.0c was announced in 10/91 and is
available from export.lcs.mit.edu and avahi.inria.fr; it should be on the R5
contrib tape.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 42) Why does the R3 xterm, et al, fail against the R4 server?
The value given to a window's do_not_propagate mask is the likely
culprit. R3 allowed bogus values to be set, and early version of both Andrew
and Interviews did, as well. Similar problems also occur in the R3 Motif
PanedWindow widget.
If it is impossible to fix client source -- and many systems still ship
the R3 xterm, use 'xset bc' to put the X11R4 server into bug-compatibility
mode.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 43)- Why doesn't xlock work on my R4 server?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 44) How can I have xclock or oclock show different timezones?
One solution is xchron, in Volume 6 of comp.sources.x, which can show
the time for timezones other than the local one.
Alternatively, you can probably set the timezone in the shell from
which you invoke the xclock or oclock, or use a script similar to this:
#!/bin/sh
TZ=PST8PDT xclock -name "Caltech" 2> /dev/null &
TZ=EST5EDT xclock -name "MIT" 2> /dev/null &
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 45) I have xmh, but it doesn't do anything. Where can I get mh?
The xmh mail-reader requires the Rand MH mail/message handling system,
which is not part of the UNIX software distribution for many machines. A list
of various ftp, uucp, e-mail and US-mail sites for both xmh and MH is given in
the monthly MH FAQ; one source is ics.uci.edu in the file pub/mh/mh-6.7.tar.Z.
If you do not receive the comp.mail.mh newsgroup or the MH-users mailing list,
you can request a copy from Bill Wohler <wohler@sap-ag.de>.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 46) Why am I suddenly unable to connect to my Sun X server?
After a seemingly random amount of time after the X server has been started, no
other clients are able to connect to it.
The default cron cleanup jobs supplied by Sun (for 4.0.3, at least)
delete "old" (unreferenced) files from /tmp -- including /tmp/.X11-unix, which
contains the socket descriptor used by X. The solution is to add "! -type s" to
the find exclusion in the cron job.
[10/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 47) Why can't I override translations? Only the first item works.
You probably have an extra space after the specification of the first
item, like this:
basic*text.translations: #override \
Ctrl<Key>a: beginning-of-line() \n\
Ctrl<Key>e: end-of-line()
^ extra space
The newline after that space is ending the translation definition.
[Thanks to Timothy J. Horton, 5/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 48) How do I report bugs in X?
Generally, report bugs you find to the organization that supplied you
with the X Window System. If you received the R5 source distribution directly
from MIT, please read the file mit/bug-report for instructions. [Look in
mit/doc/bugs/bug-report in R4.]
[Thanks to Stephen Gildea <gildea@expo.lcs.mit.edu>, 5/91; 12/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 49) Why don't the R5 PEX demos work on my mono screen?
The R5 sample server implementation only works on color screens, sorry.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 50) Why do I get "Warning: Widget class version mismatch"?
This error, which typically goes on to say, "widget 11004 vs.
intrinsics 11003" indicates that the header files you included when building
your program didn't match the header files that the Xt library you're linking
against was built with; check your -I include path and -L link-path to be sure.
However, the problem also occurs when linking against a version of the
X11R4 Xt library before patch 10; the version number was wrong. Some Sun
systems, in particular, were shipped with the flawed version of the library,
and applications which link against the library typically give the warnings you
have seen.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 51) TOPIC: OBTAINING X AND RELATED SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 52) Is X public-domain software?
No. The X software is copyrighted by various institutions and is not
"public domain", which has a specific legal meaning. However, the X
distribution is available for free and can be redistributed without fee.
Contributed software, though, may be placed in the public domain by
individual authors.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 53) How compatible are X11R3, R4, and R5? What changes are there?
The Release Notes for each MIT release of X11 specify the changes from the
previous release. The X Consortium tries very hard to maintain compatibility
across releases. In the few places where incompatible changes were necessary,
details are given in the Release Notes. Each X11 distribution site on the
network also offers the Release Notes that go with the release they offer; the
file typically can be found at the top of the distribution tree.
[Stephen Gildea, 1/92]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 54)! Where can I get X11R5 (source and/or binaries)?
Information about MIT's distribution of the sources on 6250bpi and QIC-24 tape
and its distribution of hardcopy of the documents is available from
Software Center, Technology Licensing Office, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 28 Carleton Street, Room E32-300, Cambridge MA 02142-1324,
phone: 617-258-8330.
You will need about 100Mb of disk space to hold all of Core and 140MB to hold
the Contrib software donated by individuals and companies.
PLEASE use a site that is close to you in the network.
North America anonymous FTP:
California gatekeeper.dec.com pub/X11/R5
16.1.0.2
California soda.berkeley.edu pub/X11R5
128.32.131.179
Indiana mordred.cs.purdue.edu pub/X11/R5
128.10.2.2
Maryland ftp.brl.mil pub/X11R5
128.63.16.158
(good for MILNET sites)
Massachusetts crl.dec.com pub/X11/R5
192.58.206.2
Massachusetts export.lcs.mit.edu pub/R5
18.24.0.12
(crl.dec.com is better)
Michigan merit.edu pub/X11R5
35.1.1.42
Missouri wuarchive.wustl.edu packages/X11R5
128.252.135.4
Montana ftp.cs.montana.edu pub/X.V11R5
192.31.215.202
New Mexico pprg.eece.unm.edu pub/dist/X11R5
129.24.24.10
New York azure.acsu.buffalo.edu pub/X11R5
128.205.7.6
North Carolina cs.duke.edu dist/sources/X11R5
128.109.140.1
Ohio ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu pub/X.V11R5
128.146.8.52
(not online until ~ 9 Sept)
Ontario ftp.cs.utoronto.ca pub/X11R5
128.100.1.105
Washington DC x11r5-a.uu.net X/R5
192.48.96.12
Washington DC x11r5-b.uu.net X/R5
137.39.1.12
Europe/Middle East/Australia anonymous FTP:
Australia munnari.oz.au X.V11/R5
128.250.1.21
Denmark freja.diku.dk pub/X11R5
129.142.96.1
United Kingdom src.doc.ic.ac.uk graphics/X.V11R5
146.169.3.7
hpb.mcc.ac.uk pub/X11r5
130.88.200.7
Finland nic.funet.fi pub/X11/R5
128.214.6.100
France nuri.inria.fr X/X11R5
128.93.1.26
Germany x11.informatik.uni-dortmund.de pub/X11R5
129.217.26.140
Israel cs.huji.ac.il pub/X11R5
132.65.6.5
Italy ghost.sm.dsi.unimi.it pub/X11R5
149.132.2.1
(not online until ~ 7 Sept)
Netherlands archive.eu.net windows/X/R5
192.16.202.1
Norway ugle.unit.no pub/X11R5
129.241.1.97
Norway nac.no pub/X11R5
129.240.2.40
Switzerland nic.switch.ch software/X11R5
130.59.1.40
Japan anonymous FTP:
Kanagawa sh.wide.ad.jp X11R5
133.4.11.11
Kwansai ftp.ics.osaka-u.ac.jp X11R5
133.1.12.30
Kyushu wnoc-fuk.wide.ad.jp X11R5
133.4.14.3
TISN utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp X11R5
133.11.11.11
Tokyo kerr.iwanami.co.jp X11R5
133.235.128.1
Tokyo scslwide.sony.co.jp pub/X11R5
133.138.199.1
UUCP:
uunet for UUNET customers ~/X/R5
decwrl existing neighbors only ~/pub/X11/R5
osu-cis ~/X.V11R5
(not online until ~ 9 Sept)
WJanon (host: watjo.swp.wj.com) ~/X/X11R5/
Modem: Telebit TB2500 (PEP, V.32, etc)
Systems or L.sys suggested/approximate entry:
WJanon Any ACU 19200 1-408-435-0240 "" \r login: WJanon
utai existing neighbors only ~/ftp/pub/X11R5
hp4nl Netherlands only ~uucp/pub/windows/X/R5
NFS:
Missouri wuarchive.wustl.edu /archive/packages/X11R5
128.252.135.4 mount point: /archive
AFS:
Pennsylvania /afs/grand.central.org/pub/X11R5
NIFTP (hhcp, cpf, fcp, ...):
United Kingdom uk.ac.ic.doc.src <X.V11R5>
00000510200001
user "guest"
anon FTAM:
United Kingdom 000005102000 (Janet) X.V11R5
146.169.3.7 (Internet)
204334504108 (IXI)
ACSNet:
Australia munnari.oz (fetchfile) X.V11/R5
Please fetch only one file
at a time, after checking
that a copy is not available
at a closer site.
[9/2/91; updated for contrib 10/91]
UK sites can obtain X11 through the UKUUG Software Distribution Service, from
the Department of Computing, Imperial College, London, in several tape formats.
You may also obtain the source via Janet (and therefore PSS) using Niftp (Host:
uk.ac.ic.doc.src Name: guest Password: your_email_address). Queries should be
directed to Lee McLoughlin, 071-589-5111#5037, or to info-server@doc.ic.ac.uk
or ukuug-soft@uk.ac.ic.doc (send a Subject line of "wanted". Also offered are
copies of comp.sources.x, the export.lcs.mit.edu contrib and doc areas and most
other announced freely distributable packages.
X11R5 source along with GNU code and comp.sources.x archives are available on
a ISO-9660-format CD-ROM, along with SPARC binaries, from Robert A. Bruce
at rab@sprite.Berkeley.EDU.
X11R5 and X11R4 source along with X11R5 contrib code, prebuilt X binaries for
major platforms, and source code examples from O'Reilly's books is available on
an ISO-9660-format CD-ROM from O'Reilly & Associates. [as of 3/92].
X11R5 source is available on ISO-9660-format CD-ROM for members of the Japan
Unix Society from Hiroaki Obata, obata@jrd.dec.com.
X11R5 source is available from Automata Design Associates, +1 215-646-4894.
Binaries for X11R5, with shared libX11 and libXmu, for A/UX 2.0.1 are now
available from wuarchive.wustl.edu:/archive/systems/aux/X11R5. Patches for
X11R5 compiled with gcc (but not shared libraries) are also available.
[John L. Coolidge (coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu, 10/91)]
Binaries by Rich Kaul (kaul@ee.eng.ohio-state.edu) for the Sun386i running
SunOS 4.0.2 are available on dsinc.dsi.com (please only after-hours USA EST).
A binary tree for the Next by Douglas Scott (doug@foxtrot.ccmrc.ucsb.edu) is on
foxtrot.ccmrc.ucsb.edu; it is missing the server, though.
Also:
Binaries are available from Unipalm (+44 954 211797, xtech@unipalm.co.uk),
probably for the Sun platforms.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 55)! Where can I obtain patches to X11R5?
The release of new public patches by the MIT X Consortium is announced
in the comp.windows.x.announce newsgroup.
Patches themselves are available via ftp from export and from other
sites from which X11 is available. They are now also distributed through the
newsgroup comp.sources.x, with some lagtime. Some source re-sellers may be
including patches in their source distributions of X11.
People without ftp access can use the xstuff mail server. It now has
9 patches for X11R5 [2/92]. Send to xstuff@expo.lcs.mit.edu the Subject line
send fixes #
where # is the name of the patch (its single-digit number or a file name).
Here are a few complications:
1) fix 5 is in four parts; you need to request "5a", "5b", "5c" and
"5d" separately.
2) the file sunGX.uu, which was part of an earlier patch, was
re-released with patch 7.
3) fix 8 is in two parts; you need to request "8a" and "8b".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 56) What is the xstuff mail-archive?
The xstuff server is a mail-response program. That means that you mail
it a request, and it mails back the response.
Any of the four possible commands must be the first word on a line. The
xstuff server reads your entire message before it does anything, so you can
have several different commands in a single message (unless you ask for help).
The xstuff server treats the "Subject:" header line just like any other line
of the message.
The archives are organized into a series of directories and
subdirectories. Each directory has an index, and each subdirectory has an
index. The top-level index gives you an overview of what is in the
subdirectories, and the index for each subdirectory tells you what is in it.
1) The command "help" or "send help" causes the server to send you a
more detailed version of this help file.
2) if your message contains a line whose first word is "index", then
the server will send you the top-level index of the contents of the archive. If
there are other words on that line that match the name of subdirectories, then
the indexes for those subdirectories are sent instead of the top-level index.
For example, you can say "send index fixes" (or "index fixes"). A message that
requests an index cannot request data.
3) if your message contains a line whose first word is "send", then the
xstuff server will send you the item(s) named on the rest of the line. To name
an item, you give its directory and its name. For example
send fixes 1 3 4
You may issue multiple send requests. The xstuff server contains many
safeguards to ensure that it is not monopolized by people asking for large
amounts of data. The mailer is set up so that it will send no more than a fixed
amount of data each day. If the work queue contains more requests than the
day's quota, then the unsent files will not be processed until the next day.
Whenever the mailer is run to send its day's quota, it sends the requests out
shortest-first.
4) Some mailers produce mail headers that are unusable for extracting
return addresses. If you use such a mailer, you won't get any response. If
you happen to know an explicit path, you can include a line like
path foo%bar.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu
or
path bar!foo!frotz
in the body of your message, and the daemon will use it.
The xstuff server itself can be reached at xstuff@expo.lcs.mit.edu. If
your mailer deals in "!" notation, try sending to
{someplace}!mit-eddie!expo.lcs.mit.edu!xstuff.
[based on information from the MIT X Consortium, 8/89, 4/90.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 57) Where can I obtain X11R4 (source and binaries)?
Back Software & Consulting, Inc (303-443-7758) provides X11R4 on 5.25
or 3.5 floppies (MS-DOS or Unix), Sun tar tapes (QIC-24), Apollo wbak cartridge
tapes.
Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc., ships X11R4 on half-inch,
quarter-inch, and TK50 formats. Call 617-621-0060 for ordering information.
The Free Software Foundation (617-876-3296) sells X11R4 on half-inch
tapes and on QIC-24 cartridges.
Yaser Doleh (doleh@math-cs.kent.EDU; P.O. Box 1301, Kent, OH 44240) is
making X11R4 available on HP format tapes, 16 track, and Sun cartridges. [2/90]
European sites can obtain a free X11R4 distribution from Jamie Watson,
who may be reached at chx400!pan!jw or jw@pan.uu.ch. [10/90]
Non Standard Logics (+33 (1) 43 36 77 50; requests@nsl.fr) makes source
available.
IXI Limited (+44 223 462 131) is selling X11R4 source on quarter-inch
cartridge formats and on 5.25" and 3.5" floppy, with other formats available on
request. [IXI, 2/90]
Virtual Technologies (703-430-9247) provides the entire X11R4
compressed source release on a single QIC-24 quarter-inch cartridge and also on
1.2meg or 1.44 meg floppies upon request. [Conor Cahill (cpcahil@virtech.uu.net)
2/90]
Young Minds (714-335-1350) makes the R4 and GNU distributions available
on a full-text-indexed CD-ROM.
[Note that some distributions are media-only and do not include docs.]
X11R4 is ftp-able from export.lcs.mit.edu; these sites are preferable,
though, and are more direct:
Machine Internet FTP
Location Name Address Directory
-------- ------- -------- -------------
(1) West USA gatekeeper.dec.com 16.1.0.2 pub/X11/R4
Central USA mordred.cs.purdue.edu 128.10.2.2 pub/X11/R4
(2) Central USA giza.cis.ohio-state.edu 128.146.8.61 pub/X.V11R4
Southeast USA uunet.uu.net 192.48.96.2 X/R4
(3) Northeast USA crl.dec.com 192.58.206.2 pub/X11/R4
(4) UK Janet src.doc.ic.ac.uk 129.31.81.36 X.V11R4
UK niftp uk.ac.ic.doc.src <XV11R4>
(5) Australia munnari.oz.au 128.250.1.21 X.V11/R4
The giza.cis.ohio-state.edu site, in particular, is known to have much of the
contrib stuff that can be found on export.
The release is available to DEC Easynet sites as CRL::"/pub/X11/R4".
Sites in Australia may contact this address: ftp.Adelaide.EDU.AU [129.127.40.3]
and check the directory pub/X/R4. The machine shadows export and archives
comp.sources.x. (Mark Prior, mrp@ucs.adelaide.edu.au, 5/90)
Note: a much more complete list is distributed regularly by Dan Heller
(argv@sun.com) as part of the introductory postings to comp.sources.x.
A set of X11R4 binaries built by Tom Roell (roell@informatik.tu-muenchen.de)
for the 386/ix will available from export.lcs.mit.edu in /contrib and in
/pub/i386/X11R4 from 131.159.8.35 in Europe. Stephen Hite
(shite@sinkhole.unf.edu) can also distribute to folks without ftp facilities
via disks sent SASE; contact him for USmail and shipping details. [12/90] In
addition, the binaries are available via uucp from szebra [1-408-739-1520, TB+
(PEP); ogin:nuucp sword:nuucp] in /usr2/xbbs/bbs/x. In addition, the source is
on zok in /usrX/i386.R4server/. [2/91] In addition, if you are in the US, the
latest SVR4 binary (April 15), patches, and fonts are available on
piggy.ucsb.edu (128.111.72.50) in the directory /pub/X386, same filenames as
above. (Please use after 6pm Pacific, as these are large files.) [5/91]
A set of HP 9000/800 binaries is available on hpcvaaz.cv.hp.com (15.255.72.15)
as ~ftp/pub/MitX11R4/libs.x800.Z. [2/91]
A set of X11R4 binaries for the NeXT 2.x have been made available by Howie Kaye
on cunixf.cc.columbia.edu
A set of binaries by John Coolidge (coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu) for the Mac running
A/UX 2.0 is available from wuarchive.wustl.edu in the file
(/archive/systems/aux/X11R4/Xupdate2.tar.Z). Also in X11R4/diffs is a set of
patches for making X11R4 with shared libraries with mkshlib.
A complete distribution of SCO X11R4 binaries by Baruch Cochavy
(blue@techunix.technion.ac.il) can be found on uunet. The server is Roell's
X386 1.1b, compiled for ET4000 based SVGA boards.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 58) Where can I obtain OSF/Motif?
You can obtain either OSF/Motif source or binaries from a number of
vendors. Motif 1.1, which began shipping this past August, is based on the
R4 Intrinsics and is currently [12/91] at 1.1.4.
An OSF/Motif source license must be obtained from OSF before source can
be obtained from the Open Software Foundation or any value-added vendor for
any version. Call the Direct Channels Desk at OSF at 617-621-7300 for ordering
information.
Various hardware vendors produce developer's toolkits of binaries,
header files, and documentation; check your hardware vendor, particularly if
that vendor is an OSF member.
In addition, independent binary vendors produce Motif toolkits for
machines for which Motif is not supported by a vendor; the kits include varied
levels of bug-fixing and support for shared libraries and are based on widely
divergent version of Motif:
Quest (408-988-8880) sells kits for Suns, as well;
IXI (+44 223 462 131) offers kits for Sun3 and Sun4.
NSL (+33 (1) 43 36 77 50; requests@nsl.fr) offers kits for the Sun 3
and Sun 4.
Bluestone Consulting makes a kit for Sun systems.
ICS (617-62-0060) makes several binary kits, notably for Sun, DEC.
HP and DEC have announced support for Motif on Sun systems.
Unipalm (+44-954-211-797) currently offers for Sun systems a Motif
Development Kit including X11R4 and based on Motif 1.1.2. The US distributor is
Expert Object Corp (708-926-8500).
BIM ships Motif 1.1 binaries for Suns. Shared library support is
included. Contact Alain Vermeiren (av@sunbim.be) or Danny Backx (db@sunbim.be)
at +32(2)759.59.25 (Fax : +32(2)759.47.95) (Belgium).
Metro Link Inc. (305-970-7353, sales@metrolink.com; in Europe contact
ADNT, (33 1) 3956 5333, UniVision (UK) Ltd. (44) 628 82 22 81) ships an
implementation of X11R4 and Motif 1.1.2 (including a shared-library
implementation of libXm.a) for the 386/486 Unix market. Motif 1.1.2 is
also available for Sun Sparc based workstations.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 59)! Does Motif work with X11R4? X11R5?
Applications based on OSF/Motif 1.0 will run against an R4 server if it
is set to bug-compatibility mode or if a patch (part of the 1.0.3 upgrade) to
the XmPanedWindow code is obtained.
Applications based on OSF/Motif 1.0 can be built or linked on a system
with X11R4 libraries provided that the Motif version of the R3 Intrinsics is
used; the R4 Xt should not be used with Motif 1.0 programs.
Motif 1.1, available in source form from OSF as of August 1990, uses
the "vanilla" X11R4 Intrinsics, where "vanilla" means "with just a few
patches"; the file fix-osf which OSF distributes is obsoleted by MIT's patches
15-17. The file fix-osf-1.1.1 distributed with the 1.1.1 version or its
subsequent modification needs to be applied after MIT fix-18, though.
Motif 1.1.1 to 1.1.3 will work with X11R5 if X11R5 is compiled with
-DMOTIF_BC; 1.1.4 should work with the vanilla R5, although there are some
known new geometry-management problems.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 60)! Where can I obtain toolkits implementing OPEN LOOK?
Sun's XView has a SunView-style API. A version is on the X11R4 tape;
the latest [2/92] 3.0 sources are on export in contrib/xview3.
XView and X binaries for the Sun 386i ("roadrunner") are available for
ftp from svin01.win.tue.nl (131.155.70.70), directory pub/X11R4_386i.
Roell's X11R4 package for the 386 apparently includes XView 2.0
binaries.
Supported binaries of XView include:
XView for non-Sun Platforms (domestic and selected international vendors).
Several are also available from Sun; contact your local sales office.
Amiga GfxBase, Inc. 1881 Ellwell Drive
(AmigaDOS) (408) 262-1469 Milpitas, CA 95035
Fax: (408) 262-8276
DECstation UniPress Software 2025 Lincoln Highway
(Ultrix) (908) 985-8000 Edison, NJ 08817
Fax: (908) 287-4929
UniPress Software, Ltd. PO Box 70
44-624-661-8850 Viking House
Fax: 44-624-663-453 Nelson Street
Douglas, Isle of Man
United Kingdom
DEC VAXstation TGV 603 Mission Street
(VMS) (800) TGV-3440 Santa Cruz, CA 95060
(408) 427-4366
Fax: (408) 427-4365
Unipalm Ltd. 145-147 St. Neots Road
44-0954-211797 Hardwick
Fax: 44-0954-211244 Cambridge CB3 7QJ
England
Intel 386 Quarterdeck Office 150 Pico Boulevard
(DOS) Systems Santa Monica, CA 90405
(213) 392-9851
Fax: (213) 399-3802
Intel 386 Interactive Systems 2401 Colorado Avenue
(Interactive Corporation 3rd Floor
UNIX and (213) 453-8649 Santa Monica, CA 90404
SCO UNIX) Fax: (213) 828-6453
SGI
Sony (NEWS-OS)
IBM RS/6000
HP 9000
UniPress Software (see above)
Stardent Scripps Institute Clinic MB-5
(Stellix OS Fax: (619) 554-4485 10666 N. Torrey Pines Road
and Titan OS) Include mailstop MB-5 La Jolla, CA 92057
By ftp: 192.42.82.8 in pub/binary/{Xview.README,XView.tar.Z}
AT&T's OPEN LOOK GUI 3.0 Xt-based toolkit is now generally available
[2/92]; contact 1-800-828-UNIX#544 for information. Binaries are produced
for SPARC systems by International Quest Corporation (408-988-8289). A version
of the toolkit is also produced under the name OLIT by Sun.
More recent versions of OLIT have been ported to IBM 6000 and DEC MIPS
by both UniPress and ICS. OLIT is also available for HP from Melillo Consulting
(908-873-0075). MJM (Somerset, NJ) makes OLIT 4.0 for HP 7xx series running
HPUX 8.0. [Joanne Newbauer, jo@attunix.att.com, 908-522-6677.]
Sun is shipping OpenWindows 2.0 for Sparc, Sun-3, and Sun386i machines;
contact your local sales representative for more details; the package includes
toolkit binaries and header files.
Solbourne's extensible C++-based Object Interface Library is, for now,
being distributed by AT&T; contact Paul Fillinich (attunix!uso!paulf;
908-580-4363) for information; about 1/92 Solbourne will be selling source and
will be making binaries available through a third party.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 61)! Where can I obtain other X sources?
The MIT Software Center ships the X Test Suite on tape.
User-contributed software is distributed through the newsgroup
comp.sources.x, moderated by Dan Heller (argv@sun.com); also check that group
for posting information.
Richard Hesketh (rlh2@ukc.ac.uk) has been creating a list of freely-
available X sources. The list is stored on export.lcs.mit.edu in contrib as
x-source-list.Z. It lists the main storage locations for the program and
international sites from which it may be ftp'ed.
The machine export.lcs.mit.edu has a great deal of user-contributed
software in the contrib/ directory; a good deal of it is present in current or
earlier versions on the X11R3, X11R4, and X11R5 contrib tapes. There are also
directories for fixes to contrib software. [Jim Fulton, 2/90; 2/92]
These sites used to and may still mirror export and are of particular use for
Australasia: Anonymous ftp: ftp.Adelaide.EDU.AU; ACSnet Fetchfile: sirius.ua.oz
The material on giza.cis.ohio-state.edu, which tends to duplicate
the export archives, is also available via anonymous UUCP from osu-cis, at TB+
and V.32 speeds. Write to uucp@cis.ohio-state.edu (same as osu-cis!uucp) for
instructions. [the archive is now maintained by Karl Kleinpaste]
A new west-coast UUCP X11 Archive is administered by Mark Snitily
(mark@zok.uucp) and contains the full X11 distribution, the XTEST
distribution, an entire archive of comp.sources.x and other goodies.
The machine zok has a TB+ modem which will connect to 19.2K, 2400,
1200 baud (in that order). The anonymous UUCP account is UXarch with password
Xgoodies. The modem's phone number is 408-996-8285.
A sample Systems (or L.sys) entry might be:
zok Any ACU 19200 4089968285 in:--in: UXarch word: Xgoodies
To get a current listing of the files that are available, download
the file "/usrX/ls-lR.Z".
A full subject index of the comp.sources.x files is available in the
file "/usrX/comp.sources.x/INDEX".
The machine has just the one modem, so please do not fetch large
amounts of data at one sitting.
[courtesy Mark Snitily, 2/90]
In addition, UUNET Source Archives (703-876-5050) tracks comp.sources.x and
provides 800MB+ of compressed programs on 6250 bpi tapes or 1/4" tapes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 62) Where can I obtain interesting widgets?
The Free Widget library sponsored by Brian Totty (totty@cs.uiuc.edu) is
now [12/90] available on a.cs.uiuc.edu (128.174.252.1) in pub/fwf.shar.Z. The
set of widgets there is intended to form the basis for future contributions. To
be added to the discussion list,contact free-widgets-request@kazoo.cs.uiuc.edu.
The current set includes a pixmap editor.
Additional widgets are available on the contrib/ portion of the X11R4
tapes; these include the Xcu set.
O'Reilly Volume 4, Doug Young's book, the Asente/Swick book, and Jerry
Smith's "Object-oriented Programming with the X Window System Toolkits" all
include details on writing widgets and include several useful widgets; sources
are typically on export and/or UUNET.
The Dirt interface builder includes the libXukc widet set which extends
the functionality of Xaw.
A graph widget and other 2D-plot and 3D-contour widgets by Sundar
Narasimhan (sundar@ai.mit.edu) are available from ftp.ai.mit.edu as
/com/ftp/pub/users/sundar/graph.tar.Z. The graph widget has been updated [3/91]
with documentation and histogram capabilities.
Ken Lee's Xm widget (demo) that uses Display PostScript to draw labels
at a non-horizontal angle is on export in contrib/dpslabel.tar.Z.
The Table widget (works like troff TBL tables) is available in several
flavors, one of which is with the Widget Creation Library release.
A version of Lee Iverson's (leei@McRCIM.McGill.EDU) image-viewing tool
is available as contrib/vimage-0.9.1.tar.Z on export.lcs.mit.edu. The package
also includes an ImageViewPort widget and a FileDialog widget. [12/91]
Other available file-requestor widgets include the FileSelector from
the Free Widget Foundation, the XiFileSelector from Iris Software's book, and
the xdbx file-selector extracted by David Nedde (daven@wpi.wpi.edu).
In addition, the PEXt toolkit by Rich Thomson (rthomson@dsd.es.com) is
available on export as PEXt.tar.Z; it includes a PEX widget making it easier to
include PEX in Xt-based programs.
Also:
The Xtra Widgets set includes widgets for pie and bar charts, XY plots,
Help, spreadsheets, data entry forms, and line and bar graphs. Contact
Graphical Software Technology at 301-328-9338 (info@gst.com) for information.
The XRT/graph widget, available for Motif, XView and OLIT, displays
X-Y plots, bar and pie charts, and supports user-feedback, fast updates and
PostScript output. Contact KL Group Inc. at 416-594-1026 (xrt_info%klg@uunet.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 63) What is the current state of the world in X terminals?
Jim Morton (jim@applix.com) posts quarterly to comp.windows.x a list of
manufacturers and terminals; it includes pricing information.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 64) Where can I get an X server with a touchscreen or lightpen?
Labtam offers a 19" Surface Acoustic Wave touch-screen option on its
Xengine terminals.
Tektronix (1-800-225-5434) provides an X terminal with the Xtouch
touch-screen. This terminal may also be resold through Trident Systems
(703-273-1012).
Metro Link (305-970-7353) supports the EloGraphics Serial Touch Screen
Controllers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 65)! Where can I get an X server on a PC (DOS or Unix)?
Note: MIT X11R5 already provides a server to many 386/486 *Unixes* with
support for many of the popular video graphics adapters; and for other
non-MSDOS PCs you can obtain a server from these sources:
Metro Link Inc. (305-970-7353, sales@metrolink.com; in Europe contact
ADNT, (33 1) 3956 5333) ships an implementation of X11R4 for the 386/486 Unix
market.
For MSDOS PCs:
AGE (619-455-8600, fax 619-597-6030) PC Xsight for DOS users who want
VGA, S-VGA or 8514 Xservers. It also provides XoftWare for TIGA/DOS for DOS
users who have TIGA cards with 34010 or 34020 cards. A version is also
available for ISC and SCO users who want to offload the Xserver to a TIGA card.
PC DECWindows 3.0 is an MS-DOS application that turns your PC into an
X11R4 terminal. It supports DECnet and TCP/IP. Available from DEC.
[Dennis Giokas (giokas@mosaic.enet.dec.com), 3/91]
eXcursion for Windows, from DEC, runs as a Microsoft Windows 3.0
application, allowing X Windows applications to display graphics and receive
input within Microsoft Windows. This server gives PC users access X
applications and to the ability to cut and paste both text and graphical data
from X Windows to MSWindows. [Mike Pfeffer (Pfeffer@mosaic.enet.dec.com), 1/92]
1-800-DIGITAL.
Hummingbird Communications (Canada 416-470-1203) produces the
HCL-eXceed and HCL-eXceed Plus for EGA, VGA, and VGA+ controllers. The HiRes
product includes drivers for all high-resolution formats that the company
supports.
Information Network Solutions also offers a product called HCL-eXceed
for the *86. The fax is 02-4122079 inside Australia, 612-4122079 from overseas.
Integrated Inference Machines (714-978-6201 or -6776) is shipping
X11/AT, an X server that runs under MS-windows. The server converts an IBM-AT
into an X terminal which can simultaneously run MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows
applications.
Intelligent Decisions, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA: 408-734-3730)
IBM is rumored to offer a product; part #5709-029.
DESQview/X from Quarterdeck (213-392-9851; 213-399-3802 FAX)
incorporates X into the DESQview multi-tasking DOS environment.
SpectraGraphics/GSS (503-641-2200) makes PC-Xview, an
MSDOS-based X server which interfaces with PC/TCP Plus networking software from
FTP Software and Excelan's LAN WorkPlace for DOS. The server works with
(a) 286, 386, 486 (b) EGA, VGA, DGIS displays. (c) DOS 3.2 and above
(d) Microsoft, Logitech, Mouse Systems Mice (e) 640k memory up to 16 MB memory
[the PC-Xview/16 is available for PCs with extended memory].
StarNet Communications (408-739-0881 Fax-739-0936) makes MicroX, an X
server that runs on MS-DOS. MicroX has TCP/IP built-in and will work with any
Ethernet card that has a driver that conforms to the PC/TCP Packet Driver
Specification, video drivers for the most common cards and 256-color mode on
most super VGA cards. A 286 (8 color clients maximum) and a 386 (number of
clients limited only by memory on your system) version are available.
For more information send mail to microx@StarNet.Com.
VisionWare's XVision is a Microsoft Windows-based X server which allows
an IBM-compatible PC or PS/2 to display X clients running on a networked
computer at the same time as local DOS/Windows programs. VisionWare is at
vware@visionware.co.uk Voice UK: +44 532 788858 Fax UK: +44 532 304676.
Xinetron (CA 408-727-5509) offers a 286- and 286-based PC
preconfigured with X server. The Xinet X-Station offers a maximum of 8 clients.
Xnth is an implementation of X11 R4 which runs on AT-bus PCs running
DOS 3.3 or higher. It currently supports 1280X1024 or 1024X768 resolution
monitors at 256 colors (out of 16M) with hardware accelleration for graphics
and text operations. It currently utilizes a TCP/IP byte stream over Ethernet.
Information: Jerry Norman, Nth Graphics, Ltd., 1-800-624-7552.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 66) Where can I get an X server on a Macintosh running MacOS?
eXodus from White Pine Software (603-886-9050) runs on any Mac with
at least 1MB of memory and runs the X server within a standard Macintosh
window. Version 3.0 [6/91] supports intermixing of X and Mac windows and
the ADSP protocol. The version supports the SHAPE extension and includes
DECwindows support.
Apple's MacX runs on MacPlus or newer machines with >= 2MB of memory
and system software 6.0.4 or later. Version 1.1 is fully X11R4-based. It
supports full ICCCM-compatible cut and paste of text AND graphics between the
Macintosh and X11 worlds, the SHAPE extension (including SHAPEd windows on the
Macintosh desktop), an optional built-in ICCCM-compliant window manager, X11R4
fonts and colors, a built-in BDF font compiler, and built-in standard
colormaps. [courtesy Alan Mimms (alan@apple.com], 2/91] "X for the rest of us."
[Note: MacX is also the name of a vax-mac xmodem transfer utility.]
Also: Xport (1-800-245-UNIX (415-572-0200) or xport@qualix.com) enables
Mac applications to display on an X-based workstation by turning the Mac into
an X client.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 67) Where can I get X for the Amiga?
The new Amiga 3000 machines offer an X server and OPEN LOOK tools and
libraries on a full SVR4 implementation.
GfxBase, Inc. provides "X11 R3.5" for the AmigaDos computer; it
contains X11R4 clients, fonts, etc., and a Release 3 server. An optional
programmer's toolkit includes the header files, libraries, and sample programs.
Info from GfxBase, 408-262-1469. [Dale Luck
(amiga!boing!dale@bloom-beacon.mit.edu); 2/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 68) Where can I get a fast X server for a workstation?
The R5 server should be among the fastest available for most machines.
International Quest Corporation (408-988-8289) has an optimized R4
server for Sun3/4 under SunOS 4.0.
Unipalm have R4 Servers for Sun3 and Sparc platforms. These are
optimised to use graphics hardware and will run with Sunview. Information:
+44 954 211797 or xtech@unipalm.co.uk.
Xgraph's Xtool (408-492-9031) is an X server implemented in SunView
which boasts impressive results on Sun 3 and SPARC systems. [6/90]
Several companies are making hardware accellerator boards:
Dupont Pixel Systems (302-992-6911), for Sun.
Megatek's (619-455-5590) X-cellerator board for the Sun 3 and Sun 4 is
based on the TI 34020; the company claims performance improvements of 5x to
10x over the sample X11R3 server.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 69) Where can I get a server for my high-end Sun graphics board?
Takahashi Naoto (University of Tsukuba (ntakahas@is.tsukuba.ac.jp))
has modified the MIT X11R4 server to support the Sun CG8, CG9, and CG12 boards.
The file is on export in contrib/Xsun24.shar.Z. And R5 version is expected
soon.
The JPL R5 Xsun Multi-screen server is a general purpose replacement
for the MIT server/ddx/sun layer; it provides for the screen to be split among
several monitors and implements several other features above the MIT
implementation. Available on export.lcs.mit.edu in the file
contrib/R5.Xsun.multi-screen.tar.Z. [Kaleb Keithley, kaleb@thyme.jpl.nasa.gov,
12/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 70) Where can I get an "X terminal" server for my low-end Sun 3/50?
Seth Robertson (seth@ctr.columbia.edu) has written Xkernel; the current
version [1.4 as of 8/91, 2.0 expected RSN] is on sol.ctr.columbia.edu
[128.59.64.40] in /pub/Xkernel.gamma. It turns a Sun 3/50 into a pseudo- X
terminal; most of the overhead of the operating system is side-stepped, so it
is fairly fast and needs little disk space.
A similar approach is to run the regular X server by making /etc/init
a shell script which does the minimal setup and then invokes Xsun, like this
script from mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.EDU:
#! /bin/sh
exec >/dev/console 2>&1
/etc/fsck -p /dev/nd0
case $? in
0) ;;
4) /etc/reboot -q -n
;;
8) echo ND fsck failed - get help
/etc/halt
;;
12) echo Interrupted
/etc/reboot
;;
*) echo Unknown error in reboot fsck - get help
/etc/halt
;;
esac
/bin/dd if=/tmp-fs of=/dev/nd2 bs=512 count=128 >/dev/null 2>&1
/etc/mount /dev/nd2 /tmp
/etc/ifconfig le0 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 132.206.41.255
/etc/mount -o ro apollo:/u2/x11/lib /local/lib/X11
/etc/route add default 132.206.41.1 1 >/dev/null
set `/etc/ifconfig le0`
exec /Xsun -once -multidisp -mux -query `(sh -vn </local/lib/X11/xdm-servers/$2 2>&1)`
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 71) What terminal emulators other than xterm are available?
PCS has rewritten xterm from scratch using a multi-widget approach that
can be used by applications. The *alpha* distribution is available [1/91] on
export in contrib/emu.tar.Z. More information is available from
emu@pcsbst.pcs.com.
kterm 4.1.2 is an X11R4-based vt100/vt102 (and Tektronix 4014) terminal
emulator that supports display of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text (in VT
mode). Also supported are: ANSI color sequences, multi-byte word selection,
limited Compound Text support, and tab and newline preservation in selections.
kterm 4.1.2 is also available from these anonymous ftp sites:
clr.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/kterm-4.1.2.tar.Z [128.123.1.14]
export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/kterm-4.1.2.tar.Z [18.24.0.12]
kum.kaist.ac.kr:pub/unix/Xstuffs/kterm-4.1.2.tar.Z [137.68.1.65]
[courtesy of Mark Leisher <mleisher@nmsu.edu> ]
mterm, by mouse@larry.McRCIM.McGill.EDU, is an X terminal emulator
which includes DEC emulation modes. mterm can be had by ftp to
larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (132.206.1.1), in X/mterm.src/mterm.ball-o-wax.
Also:
IBM sells a 3270 emulator for the RS/6000 (part #5765-011); it's based
on Motif.
Century Software (801-268-3088) sells a VT220 terminal emulator for X.
VT102, Wyse 50 and SCO Color Console emulation are also available.
Grafpoint's TGRAF-X provides emulation of the Tektronix 41xx and 42xx
series. Information: 408-446-1919. [5/90]
IXI's X.deskterm, a package for integrating character-based
applications into an X environment, includes a number of terminal-emulation
modules. Information: +44 (0223) 462131. [5/90]
Pericom produces Teem-X, a set of several emulation packages for a
number of Tek, DEC, Westward, and Data General terminals. The software runs on
Sun 3, Sun 4, Apollo, DEC, ISC, IBM/AIX. Information: US: 609-895-0404,
UK: +44 (0908) 560022. [5/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 72)! Where can I obtain an X-based editor or word-processor?
You can ftp the latest version of GNU Emacs, including X11 support, from
prep.ai.mit.edu [18.71.0.38]. The file you probably want is
~ftp/pub/gnu/emacs-18.57.tar.Z, or similarly-named files.
Epoch is a modified version of Gnu Emacs with additional facilities
useful in an X environment. Current sources are on cs.uiuc.edu (128.174.252.1)
in ~ftp/pub/epoch-files/epoch; the current [12/91] version is 4.0beta.
[In Europe, try unido.informatik.uni-dortmund.de]. There are two
subdirectories: epoch contains the epoch source, and gwm contains the source
to the programmable window manager GWM, with which epoch works well.]
You can get on the Epoch mailing list by sending a request to
epoch-request@cs.uiuc.edu.
The Andrew system on the X11R4 tape has been described as one of the
best word-processing packages available. It supports word processing with
multi-media embedded objects: rasters, tables/spread sheets, drawings, style
editor, application builder, embedded programming language, &c.
[Fred Hansen (wjh+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU)]
The InterViews 3.0C++ toolkit contains a WYSIWIG editor called Doc; it
saves and loads files in a LaTeX-*like* format (not quite LaTeX). The package
can also import idraw-PostScript drawings.
A simple X-based (WCL-based) editor aXe (by J.K.Wight@newcastle.ac.uk)
is available on export as aXe-1.8.tar.Z or from the email server at
info-server@newcastle.ac.uk. [12/91].
TED is a simple Motif-based text editor; it is a wrapper around the
Motif text widget which offers search/replace, paragraph formatting, and
navigation features. TED is available from ftp.eos.ncsu.edu (152.1.9.25) as
/pub/bill.tar.Z; here are also executables there.
Point, by crowley@unmvax.cs.unm.edu (Charlie Crowley), is Tcl/Tk-based
and offers dyanimic configuration and programming in the Tcl macro language.
The editor is available from unmvax.cs.unm.edu (129.24.16.1) as
pub/Point/point1.1-tar.Z.
In addition:
Elan Computer Group (Mountain View, CA; 415-964-2200) has announced the
Avalon Publisher, an X11/OPEN LOOK WYSIWYG electronic publishing system.
FrameMaker and FrameWriter are available as X-based binary products for
several machines. Frame is at 800-843-7263 (CA: 408-433-3311).
WX2 (formerly InDepthEdit) is available from Non Standard Logics
(+33 (1) 43 36 77 50; requests@nsl.fr).
Buzzwords International Inc. has an editor called 'Professional Edit'
that runs under X/Motif for various platforms. Info: +1-314-334-6317.
DECwrite is available from DEC for some DEC hardware and SunWrite is
available from Sun.
IslandWrite will soon be available from Island Graphics (415-491-1000)
for some HP & Apollo platforms.
Interleaf is currently available from Interleaf (800-241-7700,
MA: 617-577-9800) on all Sun and DEC platforms; others are under development.
The Alis and Asterix office-productivity tools from Applix
(1-800-8APPLIX, MA: 508-870-0300) include a multi-font WYSIWG document
composer; for several systems.
ArborText, Inc. provides an X11 version of its Electronic Publishing
program called "The Publisher". The Publisher is available on Sun, HP and
Apollo workstations. Contact Arbortext at 313-996-3566. [5/90]
Iris Computing Laboratories (615-886-3429) makes the "ie" editor.
BBN/Slate from BBN Software Products includes a menu-driven word
processor with multiple fonts and style sheets. It supports X on
multiple platforms. (617-873-5000 or slate-offer@bbn.com) [11/90]
The powerful "sam" editor by Rob Pike is split into a host portion and
a front-end graphics portion, which now has an X implementation. Sam is
available from the AT&T Toolchest; additional X support is available from Doug
Gwyn (gwyn@brl.mil). [1/91]
Innovative Solutions (505-883-4252; or Brian Zimbelman,
is!brian@bbx.basis.com) publishes the user-configurable Motif-based Xamine
editor.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 73)! Where can I obtain an X-based mailer?
XMH, an X interface to mh, is distributed with the X11 release.
Xmail is an X-based window interface to Berkeley-style mail handlers;
it is styled primarily after the Sunview mailtool application and builds on
most Unix systems. The current release [1/92] is 1.4, available in the MIT
X11R5 contrib tape and from export and uunet. Info: Michael C. Wagnitz,
michael@berlioz.nsc.com.
MMH (My Mail Handler), a motif interface to the MH mail handler, is
available from ftp.eos.ncsu.edu (152.1.9.25) in pub/bill.tar.Z; it is bundled
with the TED editor, which it uses for composing messages. Motif 1.1 is
required; if you don't have it, look for DEC and SPARC executables in the same
place. Information and problems to: Erik Scott, escott@eos.ncsu.edu. [1/92]
Also:
Alfalfa Software offers Poste, a UNIX-based mailer that has Motif- and
command-based interfaces. It includes support for multimedia enclosures, and
supports both the Internet and X.400 mail standards. Information:
info@alfalfa.com, +1 617-497-2922.
Z-Code Software offers Z-Mail for most Unix systems; binaries support
both tty and Motif interfaces. The mailer includes a csh-like scripting
language for customizing and extending mail capabilities. Information:
info@z-code.com, +1 415 499-8649.
And several vendors' systems include X-based mailers. DEC offers
dxmail; Sun offers an X-based mailtool.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 74) Where can I obtain an X-based paint/draw program?
xpic is an object-oriented drawing program. It supports multiple font
styles and sizes and variable line widths; there are no rotations or zooms.
xpic is quite suitable as an interactive front-end to pic, though the
xpic-format produced can be converted into PostScript. (The latest version is
on the R4 contrib tape in clients/xpic.)
xfig is an object-oriented drawing program supporting compound objects.
The text-handling is limited. The xfig-format can be converted in PostScript or
other formats. One version is on the R4 contrib tape in clients/xfig; it is one
of the several 'xfig' programs which several groups independently developed
parallel versions of from the R3 xfig.
idraw 2.5 supports numerous fonts and various line styles and arbitrary
rotations. It supports zoom and scroll and color draws and fills. The file
format is a PostScript dialect. On the R4 tape; see also
interviews-request@interviews.stanford.edu.
[courtesy Jim Helman (jim@kaos.Stanford.EDU) 7/89]
xpaint is available from ftp.ee.lbl.gov as xpaint.tar.Z.
A new OpenWindows PostScript-based graphical editor named 'ice' is now
[2/91] available for anonymous ftp from Internet host lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu
(129.236.10.30). ice (Image Composition Environment) is an imaging tool that
allows raster images to be combined with a wide variety of PostScript
annotations in WYSIWYG fashion via X11 imaging routines and NeWS PostScript
rasterizing. It may require OpenWindows 2.0 and Sun C++ 2.0.
tgif by William Cheng (william@oahu.cs.ucla.edu) is available from most
uucp sites and also from export and from cs.ucla.edu. It is frequently updated;
version 2-12 was released 2/92.
In addition:
dxpaint is a bitmap-oriented drawing program most like MacPaint; it's
good for use by artists but commonly held to be bad for drawing figures or
drafting. dxpaint is part of the Ultrix 3.x release.
FrameMaker has some draw capabilities. [4/90]
ArborText (313-996-3566) offers PubDraw, an X11-based drawing program,
on Sun, HP and Apollo workstations.
BBN/Slate from BBN Software Products includes a full-featured draw and
paint program with object grouping and multiple patterns; multiple X platforms.
(617-873-5000 or slate-offer@bbn.com). [11/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 75) Where can I obtain an X-based plotting program?
These are mostly available from uucp sites such as uunet or other sites as
marked.
gnuplot X (xplot), PostScript and a bunch of other drivers.
cs.duke.edu:/dist/sources/gnuplot/gnuplot2.02.tar.Z [128.109.140.1]
monu1.cc.monash.edu.au:/pub/gnuplot2.02.tar.Z [130.194.1.101]
irisa.irisa.fr:/pub/gnuplot2.02.tar.Z [131.254.2.3]
comp.sources.misc/volume8
gl_plot X output only [?]
comp.sources.unix/volume18
graph+
yallara.cs.rmit.oz.au:/pub/graph+.tar.Z [131.170.24.42]
comp.sources.unix/volume8
pdraw,drawplot 2D and 3D X,PS
scam.berkeley.edu:/src/local/3dplot.tar.Z [128.32.138.1]
scam.berkeley.edu:/src/local/contour.tar.Z [128.32.138.1]
scam.berkeley.edu:/src/local/drawplot.tar.Z [128.32.138.1]
uunet:~ftp/contrib/drawplot.tar.Z
xgraph plot, zoom. Outputs PS or HPGL.
shambhala.berkeley.edu:/pub/xgraph-11.tar.Z [128.32.132.54]
sun1.ruf.uni-freiburg.de:X11/contrib/xgraph-11.tar.Z [132.230.1.1]
nisc.jvnc.net:pub/xgraph-11.tar.Z [128.121.50.7]
comp.sources.x/volume3
or many other sites
xvgr An XView xgraph++ program.
sun.soe.clarkson.edu:pub/src/xvgr-1.06alpha.tar.Z [128.153.12.3]
uvax.rrz.uni-koeln.de:pub/windows/xcontrib/xvgr-1.06alpha.tar.Z
[2/91. Thanks to:
emv@ox.com (Ed Vielmetti) ; geoff@Veritas.COM (Geoffrey Leach) ;
Paul A. Scowen (uk1@spacsun.rice.edu) ; black@beno.CSS.GOV (Mike Black)]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 76) Where can I obtain an X-based spreadsheet?
Vendor Product Phone
------ ------- -----
Access Technology 20/20 (508) 655-9191
Informix WingZ (800) 331-1763
Quality Software Products Q-Calc/eXclaim 800-628-3999 (CA:213-410-0303)
Unipress Q-Calc (201) 985-8000
Uniplex Uniplex (214) 717-0068, (800) 356-8063
[above from Walter E. Gillett (gillett@AI.MIT.EDU)]
Digital DECdecision 1-800-DIGITAL
BBN Software Products BBN/Slate 617-873-5000 slate-offer@bbn.com
(the product includes WordProcessing, Spreadsheet, Graphics, Image
Processing, Foreign Language WordProcessing, Electronic Mail, and
Elecronic Conferencing)
AIS's (919-942-7801) XESS spreadsheet for VMS/Ultrix has either DECWindows or
Motif look/feel.
The Alis and Asterix office-productivity tools from Applix (1-800-8APPLIX,
MA: 508-870-0300) include a spreadsheet.
Applied Information Systems (Chapel Hill, North Carolina; 1 800 334 5510) will
begin shipping in mid-October 1990 an X11/Motif spreadsheet called Xess.
SAS by the SAS Institute (#?) now has a spreadhseet module; the X version is
available on the current popular RISC platforms.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 77)! Where can I get an X-based PostScript previewer?
xps is available from almost everywhere that the X11 contributed source
can be found. The version currently on export is based on Crispin Goswell's
PostScript interpreter with fixes and speedups by John Myers and Barry Shein
and an X11 driver by Terry Weissman. There are known problems with fonts. The
package is good for lowering the edit-print-edit cycle in experimenting with
particular PostScript effects. It is not clear whether xps is still being
maintained; ralpage, also widely available, apparently shares with xps a common
ancestor and may supersede it, and should also be considered.
Ghostscript is distributed by the Free Software Foundation
(617-876-3296) and includes a PostScript interpreter and a library of graphics
primitives. Version 2.3 is now available; the major site is prep.ai.mit.edu.
[1/92]
GSPreview (by the Computing Laboratory of the University of Kent at
Canterbury) is an X user interface (WCL-based) to the Ghostscript 2.2
interpreter [1/92]. The source is available for anonymous ftp from
export.lcs.mit.edu.
Ghostview (by Tim Theisen, tim@cs.wisc.edu) is full-function user
interface for ghostscript 2.2. The 1.0 beta [7/91] may be found on
appenzell.cs.wisc.edu:/pub/ghostview.tar.Z.
In addition:
ScriptWorks is Harlequin's software package for previewing and printing
PostScript(R) descriptions of text and graphics images; previewers for X are
available. For information call +44-223-872522 or send email to
scriptworks-request@uk.co.harlqn.
Image Network's Xps supports the full PostScript language and renders
in color, grayscale, or monochrome. Fonts displayed are anti-aliased. Info:
Image Network, +1 415 967 0542.
Digital's dxpsview runs on UWS 2.1 and 2.2.
Sun's pageview runs with the X11/NeWS server.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 78) Where can I get an X-based GKS package?
The latest freely-available XGKS can be obtained from
xgks-request@unidata.ucar.edu; this is a 2c implementation derived from the
X11R4 contrib XGKS from IBM and the University of Illinois. The release
is on unidata.ucar.edu [128.117.140.3] as pub/xgks.tar.Z. [12/90]
In addition, Grafpak-GKS is available from Advanced Technology Center
(714-583-9119).
GKSUL is available from gks@ulowell.edu (ULowell CS department). It is
a 2b implementation which includes drivers for a variety of devices. It can be
passed an X window ID to use. The package includes both C and Fortran bindings.
[11/90; from dsrand@mitre.org and from stew@hanauma.stanford.edu]
An XgksWidget is produced by Neil Bowers (neilb@leeds.dcs;
neilb@dcs.leeds.ac.uk); the latest [10/91] conforms with the new version of
XGKS (2.4). It is available on export in contrib/xgks-widget.tar.Z.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 79) Where can I get an X-based PEX package?
The official release of PEX is with X11R5.
There is now available from the University of Illinois an
implementation of the PEX 4.0 specification called UIPEX. It contains a "near-
complete" implementation of PHiGS and PHiGS PLUS. The file
pub/uipex/uipex.tar.Z is on a.cs.uiuc.edu (128.174.252.1); the porting platform
was an RT running 4.3. Questions and comments can to go uipex@cs.uiuc.edu.
In addition, the PEXt toolkit by Rich Thomson (rthomson@dsd.es.com) is
available on export as PEXt.tar.Z; it includes a PEX widget making it easier to
include PEX in Xt-based programs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 80) Where can I get an X-based TeX or DVI previewer?
The xtex previewer for TeX files is available from a number of archive
sites, including uunet; the current version is usually on foobar.colorado.edu
(128.138.204.31) in SeeTeX-2.17.0.tar.Z; pre-converted fonts are also on that
machine. The distribution all includes "mftobdf" which converts PK, GF, and PXL
fonts to BDF format, where they can then be compiled for use by your local X
server. Xtex 2.17 was announced 3/1/91.
The xdvi dvi-previewer is fairly comprehensive and easy to use. It is
also available from a number of sites, including uunet and export.lcs.mit.edu.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 81) Where can I get an X-based troff previewer?
X11R4 has two previewers for device-independent troff: the supported
client xditview, and the contributed-but-well-maintained xtroff. An earlier
version of xtroff also appeared on the R3 contributed source. xditview is also
in the R5 distribution.
In addition, the xman client can be used to preview troff documents
which use the -man macros (i.e. man pages).
In addition:
xproof, an X previewer for ditroff has been contributed by Marvin
Solomon (solomon@cs.wisc.edu); version 3.5 is available on export in
contrib/xproof*. [8/90]
Elan Computer Group (CA: 415-964-2200) produces eroff, a modified
troff implementation, and Elan/Express, an X11 eroff previewer.
SoftQuad (416-963-8337; USA only 800-387-2777, mail@sq.uu.net or
mail@sq.com) offers SoftQuad Publishing Software, including a substantially-
rewritten troff formatter, a better intermediate language with backwards
compatibility, and an X11[R3,R4] previewer. (This is the package adopted by
AT&T's own MIS department, and used in and re-sold by many parts of AT&T).
[information from Ian Darwin, SoftQuad (ian@sq.com) 3/90]
Image Network (1-800-TOXROFF; CA: 415-967-0542) offers the Xroff
package, which includes a fine modified troff implementation and a set of
X11-based page previewers. (This is the package OEM'ed by several hardware
vendors.)
[mostly courtesy moraes@cs.toronto.edu (Mark Moraes)] [2/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 82)! Where can I obtain a WYSIWYG interface builder?
A new release of the DIRT interface builder by Richard Hesketh works
with X11R5 and includes some support for the Motif widget set. From the README:
This builder allows the interactive creation and rapid prototyping of X user
interfaces using the X Toolkit and a number of Widget Sets. Dirt generates
"Wc - Widget Creation" resource files and this distribution also includes the
Widget Creation Library (version 1.06, with the exception of the demos and
Mri/Ari source code) with the kind permission of its author David E. Smyth.
Check dirt.README, dirt.A2.0.tar.Z, and dirt.PS.Z on export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib.
The InterViews 3.0-beta C++ toolkit contains a WYSIWIG interface
builder called ibuild. ibuild generates code for an InterViews application
complete with Imakefile and an X-resource file. Documentation is
/pub/papers/ibuild.ps. on interviews.stanford.edu (36.22.0.175).
Druid (Demonstrational Rapid User Interface Development) runs on SPARC
machines using OSF/Motif 1.0; it is intended eventually to be a full UIMS but
apparently now has only support for creating the presentation components, for
which it generates C/UIL code. Info: Singh G, Kok CH, Ngan TY, "Druid: A System
for Demonstrational Rapid User Interface Development". Proc. ACM SIGGRAPH Symp
on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST'90). ACM, NY, 1990, pp:167-177.
In addition, these commercial products (unsorted) are available in
final or prerelease form [the * following the product name indicates that the
product is known to allow the designer to specify for each widget whether a
particular resource is hard-coded or written to an application defaults file,
for at least one form of output]. Some are much more than user-interface tools;
some are full user interface management systems:
Product Name Look/Feel Code Output Vendor
HP Interface Motif 1.1 C(Xm) HP/Visual Edge
Architect/ UIMX
OPEN LOOK Express OPEN LOOK C(Xol+ helper lib) AT&T/Visual Edge
UIMX 2.0 * Motif 1.1 C(Xm + helper code) Visual Edge
514-332-6430
& distributors
VUIT 2.0 Motif 1.1 C/UIL[r/w] DEC
(1-800-DIGITAL)
X-Designer 1.1 * Motif 1.1 C(Xm); C/UIL Imperial
Software
Technology, Ltd
(+44 734 587055)
sales@ist.co.uk
XFaceMaker2 (XFM2) * Motif 1.0 C;C/script (C-like procedural language)
NSL
(33 1 43 36 77 50)
requests@nsl.fr
Builder Xcessory 2.0 * Motif 1.1 C(Xm); C/UIL[r/w] ICS
(617-621-0060)
info@ics.com
XBUILD 1.1 * Motif 1.0 C(Xm); C/UIL Nixdorf
(617-864-0066)
xbuild@nixdorf.com
iXBUILD Motif 1.1 C(Xm); C/UIL iXOS Software
karl@ixos.uucp
089/461005-69
TeleUSE 1.1 Motif 1.1 PCD (like UIL);C + helper lib
Telesoft
(619-457-2700)
ezX Motif 1.1 C(Xm +helper lib) Sunrise
(401-847-7868)
info@sunrise.com
Snapix Motif C/Xm ADNT
+33 1 3956 5333
/dev/GUIDE OPEN LOOK GIL [-> XView] Sun
ExoCode/SXM Motif C(Xm) Expert Object
ExoCode/Plus OPEN LOOK XView 708-676-5555
TAE+ Xw;Motif C(Xw,Xm); C/TCL (TAE Control Language,
like UIL[needs helper library]);
VAX Fortran; Ada
Nasa Goddard
(301) 286-6034
MOB Motif; OpenLook C/Xm,UIL; C/Xol Kovi
408-982-3840
PSM PM, MSW 3.0, C/UIL Lancorp
Motif 1.1.2,Mac Pty Ltd.
+61 3 629 4833
Fax: 629 1296
(Australia)
MOTIFATION Motif 1.0|1.1.2 C(Xm) AKA EDV
+49 (0) 234/33397-0
+49 (0) 234/33397-40 fax
UIB Open Look/Motif C++(OI) Solbourne
+1 303-678-4626
Look for magazine reviews for more complete comparisons of meta-file formats,
documentation, real ease-of-use, etc; Unix World and Unix Review often carry
articles.
In addition, Neuron Data (1 415 321-4488) makes Open Interface, a
window-system-independent object toolkit which supports interfaces which are
or resemble (supersets of) Mac, Windows, and Motif and Open Look; the package
includes an interface builder.
In addition, the GRAMMI builder for Ada (1-800-GRAMMI1) apparently
includes X/Motif output.
In addition, these non-WYSIWYG but related products may help for goals
of rapid prototyping of the application interface:
WCL: the Widget Creation Library. Basically describes the widget
hierarchy and actions in a resources file; available from fine archive servers
everywhere, including devvax.jpl.nasa.gov (128.149.1.143) in pub/. Wcl provides
a very thin layer over Xt without any internal tweaking.
WINTERP: an Xlisp-based Motif toolkit allows for interpretive
programming. The copy on the R4 tape is outdated; get a copy off export or
email to winterp-source%hplnpm@hplabs.hp.com.
The Serpent UIMS permits the building of user-interfaces without
specific knowledge of coding but with an understanding of attributes being set
on a particular [Motif] widget. Beta Release 1.2 is available from
ftp.sei.cmu.edu (128.237.1.13) and can be found in /pub/serpent. Serpent is
also available on export.lcs.mit.edu (18.24.0.11) in /contrib/serpent. Email
questions can go to serpent@sei.cmu.edu. A commercial version of Serpent is
available as "Agora" from ASET, 221 Woodhaven Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15228.
Garnet is a Common Lisp-based GUI toolkit. Information is available
from garnet@cs.cmu.edu.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 83) Where can I find X tools callable from shell scripts?
I want to have a shell script pop up menus and yes/no dialog boxes if the user
is running X.
Several tools in the R3 contrib/ area were developed to satisfy these
needs: yorn pops up a yes/no box, xmessage displays a string, etc. There are
several versions of these tools; few, if any, have made it to the R4 contrib/
area, though they may still be available on various archive sites.
In addition, Richard Hesketh (rlh2@ukc.ac.uk) has posted the xmenu
package to comp.sources.x ("v08i008: xmenu") for 1-of-n choices. [7/90]
Two versions of XPrompt have been posted to comp.sources.x, the latter
being an unauthorized rewrite. [R. Forsman (thoth@reef.cis.ufl.edu), 1/91]
There is a version of XMenu available from comp.sources.x; it is
being worked on and will likely be re-released.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 84)! Where can I get an X-based debugger?
xdbx, an X interface to the dbx debugger, is available via ftp from
export. The current [1/91] version is 2.1 patchlevel 2.
An X interface to gdb called xgdb is also available as part of the gdb
distribution but hasn't been updated from R3 or from the older versions of gdb.
Also, an X interface to gdb called xxgdb is more like xdbx 2.1.2. It
is part of comp.sources.x volume 11 [2/91]. mxgdb, a Motif interface to this
program by Jim Tsillas (jtsillas@bubba.ma30.bull.com), was posted 7/91 to
alt.sources; 1.1.2 is now available on export:~/contrib [1/92] and support
gdb 4.x.
UPS is a source-level debugger which runs under the X11 and SunView
window systems on Sun and DEC platforms. It is available from export
(18.24.0.11) as contrib/ups-2.31.tar.Z.
Also:
MIPS produces a highly-customizable (WCL-based) Visual Debugger.
You should be able to use Sun's dbxtool with its X11/NeWS server.
The CodeCenter (617-498-3000) source-level debugger includes an X-based
interface; this essential programmer's tool run on most major platforms.
AT&T offers the eXamine Graphical Interface, an X11 interface to dbx
and C++ dbx for Sun3 and Sun4 and sdb and sdb++ for 386 and 3B2 platforms. Call
1-508-960-1997 or contact examine@mvuxi.att.com for more information.
Solbourne (+1 303-678-4626) offers source and binaries of PDB, it's
X-based debugger.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 85) How can I "tee" an X program identically to several displays?
There are several protocol multiplexer tools which provide for the
simultaneous display of X clients on any number of machines.
XMX (an X Protocol Multiplexor) is available from wilma.cs.brown.edu
(128.148.31.66) as pub/xmx.tar.Z It works independently of the server and does
not affect the application being shared; it was developed for use in the
electronic classroom.
SHX from Michael Altenhofen of Digital Equipment GmbH CEC Karlsruhe
also does this; it is a "WYSIWIS" (What You See Is What I See) package in the
context of a computer-based learning/training tool to provide online help from
remote tutors but is also useful for general window sharing. Information:
shX@nestvx.enet.dec.com. SHX can be found on export and
gatekeeper.dec.com:/pub/X11/contrib/shX.tar.Z,
crl.dec.com:/pub/X11/contrib/shX.tar.Z
XTrap is implemented as a server/library extension. It is available as:
gatekeeper.dec.com pub/X11/contrib/XTrap_v31.tar.Z
export.lcs.mit.edu contrib/XTrap_v31.tar.Z
Also:
Hewlett-Packard Co. has a commercial product, "Shared X" which works
under HP-UX currently on their 300 and 400 series workstations. The product
number is B2305A for the media and manuals and B2305L for the license.
Apparently it works by temporarily replacing the X server with a special one.
[Thanks in part to scott@spectra.com (Tim Scott),5/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 86) TOPIC: BUILDING THE X DISTRIBUTION [topic needs updating to R5]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 87) What's a good source of information on configuring the X build?
This FAQ includes information on a number of "gotchas" that can bite
you on particular system. However, the best source of general information on
building the X11 release is found in the Release Notes. The file is bundled
separately from the rest of the release, so if it's become separated from your
sources you can FTP another copy separately: the file RELNOTES.[ms,PS,TXT] at
the top of the distribution.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 88) Why doesn't my Sun with a cg6 work with R5?
Apparently gcc is the problem; it seems to produce fine code for all
Sun displays except for the cgsix. The new sunGX.o distributed with fix-07
may fix the problem.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 89) Why doesn't my Sun with SunOS 4.1 know about _dlsym, etc.?
If you get errors with _dlsym _dlopen _dlclose undefined, link with
libdl.a. Add "-ldl" to your and eventually your site.def. You may want to
surround it with "-Bstatic -ldl -Bdynamic" if you add it to the EXTRA_LIBRARIES
variable, since "syslibs" get added after EXTRA_LIBRARIES on the eventual
compilation command; otherwise you may not have a shared libdl. (Or compile
the stubs shared.)
[thanks to Joe Backo (joe.backo@East.Sun.COM), 12/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 90) Why can't gcc compile X11R4 on my SPARC?
I used gcc to compile the whole distribution, but I get several segmentation
faults when running X.
Note first that gcc on RISC machines does not necessarily result in
any performance increase; it certainly is not as noticeable as it is on the
680x0 or VAX platforms.
Here is the problem: gcc and cc use incompatible methods of passing
structures as arguments and returning them as function values, so when
gcc-compiled parts of X are linked with Sun-supplied functions that pass or
return structs, run-time errors occur. Affected programs include rgb and
the server.
This is from the GCC manual:
On the Sparc, GNU CC uses an incompatible calling convention for
structures. It passes them by including their contents in the argument
list, whereas the standard compiler passes them effectively by
reference.
This really ought to be fixed, but such calling conventions are not yet
supported in GNU CC, so it isn't straightforward to fix it.
The convention for structure returning is also incompatible, and
`-fpcc-struct-return' does not help.
You can duck the problem either by using cc throughout or by using it for just
the routines which cause incompatibilities; the problem cannot be solved with
compilation flags.
Files which need to be compiled using cc include:
server/os/4.2bsd/oscolor.c
rgb/rgb.c
In addition, several of the "inet_" functions use structs as args or
return values:
clients/xhost/xhost.c
clients/xauth/gethost.c.
Calls to inet_addr in /lib/CLX/socket.c and lib/X/XConnDis.c are possibly
harmless as they don't involve structs.
[collected by bashford@scripps.edu (Don Bashford); 8/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 91) What are these I/O errors running X built with gcc?
When I try to run xinit or the Xsun server I get the error
"Getting interface configuration: Operation not supported on socket.
Fatal server bug! no screens found."
Running the gcc fixincludes script apparently didn't work. You can do
this simple test:
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
SIOCGIFCONF
Run that through cc -E and gcc -E. The last line of output is the piece of
interest; it should be identical (modulo irrelevant differences like
whitespace). If the gcc version has 'x' where the cc version has 'i', your
fixincludes run didn't work for some reason or other; go back to your gcc
sources and run `fixincludes`; then rebuild the X distribution. If they are
identical, try running a make clean in mit/server and rebuilding, just to make
sure everything gets compiled with the proper include files.
[courtesy der Mouse, mouse@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU; 9/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 92) What are these problems compiling X11R4 with "gcc -traditional"?
There are known problems with gcc 1.38 which cause use of the
-traditional to produce errors along the lines of "gcc: Program cpp got fatal
signal 6". The fix is to upgrade to 1.39.
[from Darryl Okahata (darrylo%hpnmd@relay.hp.com); 2/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 93) What are these problems compiling X11R4 on ISC?
If you are building R4 with shared libraries, then you need to patch
GCC to handle a shared lib problem with X386. The easiest way to do this is to
ftp from suphys.physics.su.oz.au the Esix binaries for GCC (they run fine on
ISC). They have already been patched. You have to use the added "-mnobss"
switch for the shared lib problems you're experiencing with Roell's extra
patches for X386 1.1b.
[Thanks to Stephen Hite (shite@sinkhole.unf.edu), 7/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 94) What are these problems compiling X11R4 on the older Sun3?
In mit/server/ddx/sun/sunCG3C.c, we have found "missing" defines for
CG3AC_MONOLEN, CG3BC_MONOLEN, CG3AC_ENBLEN, CG3BC_ENBLEN. What should these be?
The R4 Errata list distributed after X11R4 mentions that you can add
these lines to the file on older SunOS versions (e.g. 3.5) to compile:
#define CG3AC_MONOLEN (128*1024)
#define CG3AC_ENBLEN CG3AC_MONOLEN
#define CG3BC_MONOLEN CG3AC_MONOLEN
#define CG3BC_ENBLEN CG3AC_MONOLEN
However, the Sun3 should not actually ever have the CG3 device, and so
references to it can be removed from mit/server/ddx/sun/sunInit.c and the
Imakefile. [11/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 95) What are these problems compiling the X server on SunOS 4.1.1?
The file <sundev/cg6reg.h> isn't being found.
Sun omitted <sundev/cg6reg.h> from SunOS 4.1.1. Remove the #include
from sunCG6C.c and replace it with the line
#define CG6_VADDR_COLOR 0x70016000
The file has changed from earlier versions of SunOS and should not be copied
from another distribution.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 96) What are these problems using R4 shared libraries on SunOS 4?
All of the executables that I try to run have the following results:
ld.so: libXmu.so.4: not found
or even:
ld.so: call to undefined procedure __GetHostname from 0xf776a96c
If you are building with shared libraries on a Sun, remember that you
need to run "ldconfig" as root after installing the shared libraries (if you've
installed X on a file-server, run it on the server's clients, too). While
building and installing the distribution, you need to be careful to avoid
linking against any existing X shared libraries you might have (e.g. those
distributed with OpenWindows). You should make sure you do not have
LD_LIBRARY_PATH set in your environment during the build or the installation.
If you are going to keep xterm and xload as setuid programs, please note that
the shared libraries must be installed in /usr/lib, /usr/local/lib, or
/usr/5lib for these programs to work (or else those programs must be linked
statically). [courtesy MIT X Consortium]
Note also that the program mkfontdir is run as part of the build; it
attempts, however, to use the shared libraries before they have been installed.
You can avoid the errors by building mkfontdir statically (pass -Bstatic to
most C compilers).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 97) How do I get around the SunOS 4.1 security hole?
There is a security problem with certain R4 clients (xterm and xload)
running under SunOS 4.1 that have been installed setuid root and are using shared
libraries; to avoid the problem, do one of these:
1) make the program non-setuid. You should consult your system
administrator concerning protection of resources (e.g. ptys and /dev/kmem) used
by these programs, to make sure that you do not create additional security
problems at your site.
2) relink the programs statically (using -Bstatic).
3) install the libraries before linking and link with absolute paths
to the libraries.
[from rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Bob Scheifler), 12/90]
The R5 version of xterm does this automatically by rebuilding xterm against the
newly-installed libraries when xterm is being installed; this prevents an suid
program from being built with libraries specified relatively. Note that this
may cause an inconvenience when doing the installation from NFS-mounted disks.
Xload has been rewritten to avoid the problem.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 98) TOPIC: BUILDING X PROGRAMS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 99) What is Imake?
Imake is not a replacement for the make program; instead, it is a
makefile-generator that takes advantages of the include-file and macro-
processing capabilities of the C preprocessor cpp to generate makefiles
suitable for building software on a particular system. Although it is not
specific to X, the X release uses it to help solve a number of the
configuration issues that arise in making such a large system widely portable.
Imake has a fairly steep learning curve, in part because the process by
which the system-specific configuration files, system-independent configuration
files, and individual Imakefiles are melded to produce a Makefile is not
obvious.
There have been several different versions of imake; the R3, R4, and
R5 versions are different.
You can obtain information on imake from these sources:
- Paul Dubois (dubois@primate.wisc.edu) has written a useful
explanation of how Imake works and how to use it in configuring X for non-
supported systems; the document is available from ftp.primate.wisc.edu
in the directory ~ftp/pub/imake-stuff; look for config-X11R4.ms (troff) and
config-X11R4.ps (PostScript). Some supplemental appendices are nearby.
[7/91: document version is now 1.06]
- the R4 and R5 release notes and imake man page include information on
using Imake to build X
- the R4 and R5 file mit/config/README also contains useful information
- on the R4 tapes, contrib/doc/imake/imake.tex is Mark Moraes' R3/R4
guide to imake.
- see "System Administration - Imake: Friend of Foe?" by Dinah McNutt
in the November 1991 issue of SunExpert.
[1/91;12/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 100) Where can I get imake?
Versions are distributed with the R4 and R5 releases. An earlier
version is distributed with the X11R3 release; some third-party toolkits
redistribute versions of imake along with their own implementations of the
template and configuration files. There are no real standards for such
configuration files, although most *current* contributed software expects the
templates distributed with X11R5.
export contains the R5 distribution unpacked, so you can pick up imake
without picking up the entire distribution.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 101) I have a program with an Imakefile but no Makefile. What to do?
If you have R4 or R5 installed on your system, run "xmkmf". This is a
script which runs imake for you with the correct arguments. The output is a
Makefile configured for your system and based on the Imakefile. Then run make,
which will use that new Makefile to compile the program.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 102) Why can't I link to the Xlib shape routines?
When I try to compile certain programs, I get the following link error:
Undefined:
_XShapeQueryExtension
_XShapeCombineMask
These routines are actually part of the Shape Extension to X (SHAPE)
which was introduced in the MIT X11R4 distribution and allows non-rectangular
windows. Like the other sample server extensions, the shape extension will
only run on a server which supports it. Pre-X11R4 servers, as well as many
vendor-supplied servers, do not support the shape extension, in which case
they will display rectangular windows anyway.
In order to use the shape extension, you must link to the library
libXext.a. In the X11R4 distribution, this library and the associated includes
will be in the mit/extensions directory. If you do not have these files, do
not despair: many freeware programs which use the shape extension can also be
compiled without it by removing the -DSHAPE define from the Makefile; you can
probably do this and compile successfully against your older vendor-supplied X
libraries.
[from John B. Melby, melby%yk.fujitsu.co.jp@uunet.uu.net, 3/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 103) What are these problems with "_XtInherit not found" on the Sun?
When I run a X program that I wrote on a SunOS 4.0.3 or 4.1 machine I get the
error "ld.so: symbol not found _XtInherit".
What you are seeing is a side-effect of a kludge in the R4 libXt.a to
get Sun shared libraries working. Apparently, you can't share a function that
is both called and compared, as _XtInherit is. This was handled by putting
_XtInherit in the same file as a function that is always used, thereby
guaranteeing that it would be loaded -- that is, in Initialize.c, where
XtToolkitInitialize() and XtInitialize() reside. These routines would normally
be called.
You are probably seeing this error because your program is not a normal
Xt-based program and does not call XtToolkitInitialize() anywhere.
1) it may be a program that uses Xt functions but never opens a
connection to the X server. [OSF/Motif's 1.1.0 UIL had this problem; it called
XtMalloc() and other Xt functions.] The solution is to add the call to your
program; the function does not have to be executed, just linked in.
2) alternatively, your program doesn't need any Xt functions and is
correct in not calling XtToolkitInitialize() -- it may be an Xlib or XView
program. In this case, you can remove -lXt from your link command.
It should not be necessary to link the shared libraries statically,
although this will certainly solve the problem.
[from Jordan Hayes (now jordan@tcs.COM) and Danny Backx (db@sunbim.be); 11/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 104) Why can't I compile my R3 Xaw contrib programs under the new X?
I have a program that worked well under X11R3. When I try to link it under
the current version of X, I get this message:
Undefined:
_XtScrollBarSetThumb
_XtTextSetInsertionPoint
_XtTextReplace
There were several name changes in the Athena widget set (in addition
to the header files moving into <X11/Xaw/>); these are mentioned in the R4
release notes. In this case, these functions are not really Xt functions but
are part of the Xaw text widget and so have been renamed from Xt* to Xaw*.
[10/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 105) TOPIC: PROGRAMMING PROBLEMS AND PUZZLES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 106) Why doesn't my program get the keystrokes I select for?
The window manager controls how the input focus is transferred from one
window to another. In order to get keystrokes, your program must ask the
window manager for the input focus. To do this, you must set up what are
called "hints" for the window manager. If your applications is Xlib-based, you
can use something like the following:
XWMHints wmhints;
...
wmhints.flags = InputHint;
wmhints.input = True;
XSetWMHints(dpy, window, &wmhints)
If your application is based on the Xt Intrinsics, you can set the XtNinput
resource to be True (as you probably want to in any case); if you don't have
source, you can start up the application with the resource '*input:True'.
Certain window managers, notably dxwm and olwm, are very picky about having
this done.
If you are using Sun's OpenWindows olwm, you can also add this resource
to your defaults file to use clients that aren't ICCCM-compliant.
OpenWindows.FocusLenience: true
[mostly courtesy Dave Lemke of NCD and Stuart Marks of Sun]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 107) How do I figure out what window manager is running?
You can't reliably tell; whatever mechanism you could use could be
spoofed in any case.
For most cases, you shouldn't care which window manager is running, so
long as you do things in an ICCCM-conformant manner. There are some cases in
which particular window managers are known to do things wrong; checking for
particular hints placed on the window by the window manager so that you can
sidestep the problem may be appropriate in these cases. Alternatively, it may
be appropriate to determine which window manager is running in order to take
advantage of specific *added* features (such as olwm's push-pin menus) in order
to give your program *added* functionality. Beware of usurping the window
manager's functions by providing that functionality even when it is missing;
this surely leads to future compatibility problems.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 108) Is there a skeleton X program available?
There is no general framework such as the TransSkel program for the
Macintosh which handles lots of the odds and ends and overhead of development
under a window system and which can be used as a platform for additional
development. In X, the problem is typically solved by using an interactive
application builder tool or by using cut&paste on existing X applications. Good
applications which you might look to manipulate when you want to "test just
this one little thing" include contrib/clients/xskel, a simple R4 program that
puts up a window and allows sketching in it and offers a starting point for
quick hacks, the Xaw examples in the examples/ directory in the R3 and R4
distributions, and the Xlib "Hello World" example in the R3 doc/HelloWorld and
R4 doc/tutorials/HelloWorld; an updated version of this program which uses R4
Xlib calls and current ICCCM conventions was posted in 2/90 to comp.windows.x
by Glenn Widener of Tektronix. [3/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 109) Why does XtGetValues not work for me?
The XtGetValues interface for retrieving resources from a widget is
sensitive to the type of variable. Your code may be doing something like this:
{
Arg args[3];
int i;
int sensitive; /* oops; wrong data type */
i=0;
XtSetArg (args[i], XtNsensitive, &sensitive); i++;
XtGetValues(widget, args, i );
...
}
But XtNsensitive is a Boolean, which on most machines is a single byte;
declaring the variable "sensitive" as Boolean works properly. This problem
comes up often when using particular toolkits that redefine the Xt types
Dimension and Position; code that assumes they are int will have similar
problems if those types are actually short. In general: you are safe if you
use the actual type of the resource, as it appears in the widget's man page.
[11/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 110) Why don't XtConfigureWidget/XtResizeWidget/XtMoveWidget work?
You're probably trying to use these functions from application code.
They should be used only internally to widgets; these functions are for a
parent widget to change the geometry of its children. Other promising
functions, XtMakeGeometryRequest() and XtMakeResizeRequest(), are also for use
only by widgets, in this case by a child to request a change from its parent.
The only way for your application to request a geometry change for a
widget is to issue an XtSetValues call setting some of the geometry resources.
Although this will result in the widget-internal functions' being called, your
application code must use the standard XtSetValues interface or risk the
widgets' data becoming corrupted.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 111) How can my application tell if it is being run under X?
A number of programs offer X modes but otherwise run in a straight
character-only mode. The easiest way for an application to determine that it is
running on an X display is to attempt to open a connection to the X server:
display = XOpenDisplay(display_name);
if (display)
{ do X stuff }
else
{ do curses or something else }
where display_name is either the string specified on the command-line following
-display, by convention, or otherwise is (char*)NULL [in which case
XOpenDisplay uses the value of $DISPLAY, if set].
This is superior to simply checking for the existence a -display command-line
argument or checking for $DISPLAY set in the environment, neither of which is
adequate. [5/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 112) How do I make a "busy cursor" while my application is computing?
Is it necessary to call XDefineCursor() for every window in my application?
The easiest thing to do is to create a single InputOnly window that is
as large as the largest possible screen; make it a child of your toplevel
window and it will be clipped to that window, so it won't affect any other
application. (It needs to be as big as the largest possible screen in case the
user enlarges the window while it is busy or moves elsewhere within a virtual
desktop.) Substitute "toplevel" with your top-most widget here (similar code
should work for Xlib-only applications; just use your top Window):
unsigned long valuemask;
XSetWindowAttributes attributes;
/* Ignore device events while the busy cursor is displayed. */
valuemask = CWDontPropagate | CWCursor;
attributes.do_not_propagate_mask = (KeyPressMask | KeyReleaseMask |
ButtonPressMask | ButtonReleaseMask | PointerMotionMask);
attributes.cursor = XCreateFontCursor(XtDisplay(toplevel), XC_watch);
/* The window will be as big as the display screen, and clipped by
its own parent window, so we never have to worry about resizing */
XCreateWindow(XtDisplay(toplevel), XtWindow(toplevel), 0, 0,
65535, 65535, (unsigned int) 0, CopyFromParent, InputOnly,
CopyFromParent, valuemask, &attributes);
When you want to use this busy cursor, map and raise this window; to go back to
normal, unmap it. This will automatically keep you from getting extra mouse
events; depending on precisely how the window manager works, it may or may not
have a similar effect on keystrokes as well.
In addition, note also that most of the Xaw widgets support an XtNcursor
resource which can be temporarily reset, should you merely wish to change the
cursor without blocking pointer events.
[thanks to Andrew Wason (aw@cellar.bae.bellcore.com), Dan Heller
(argv@sun.com), and mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu; 11/90,5/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 113) How do I query the user synchronously using Xt?
It is possible to have code which looks like this trivial callback,
which has a clear flow of control. The calls to AskUser() block until answer
is set to one of the valid values. If it is not a "yes" answer, the code drops
out of the callback and back to an event-processing loop:
void quit(w, client, call)
Widget w;
XtPointer client, call;
{
int answer;
answer = AskUser(w, "Really Quit?");
if (RET_YES == answer)
{
answer = AskUser(w, "Are You Really Positive?");
if (RET_YES == answer)
exit(0);
}
}
A more realistic example might ask whether to create a file or whether
to overwrite it.
This is accomplished by entering a second event-processing loop and
waiting until the user answers the question; the answer is returned to the
calling function. That function AskUser() looks something like this, where the
Motif can be replaced with widget-set-specific code to create some sort of
dialog-box displaying the question string and buttons for "OK", "Cancel" and
"Help" or equivalents:
int AskUser(w, string)
Widget w;
char *string;
{
int answer=RET_NONE; /* some not-used marker */
Widget dialog; /* could cache&carry, but ...*/
Arg args[3];
int n = 0;
XtAppContext context;
n=0;
XtSetArg(args[n], XmNmessageString, XmStringCreateLtoR(string,
XmSTRING_DEFAULT_CHARSET)); n++;
XtSetArg(args[n], XmNdialogStyle, XmDIALOG_APPLICATION_MODAL); n++;
dialog = XmCreateQuestionDialog(XtParent(w), string, args, n);
XtAddCallback(dialog, XmNokCallback, response, &answer);
XtAddCallback(dialog, XmNcancelCallback, response, &answer);
XtAddCallback(dialog, XmNhelpCallback, response, &answer);
XtManageChild(dialog);
context = XtWidgetToApplicationContext (w);
while (answer == RET_NONE || XtAppPending(context)) {
XtAppProcessEvent (context, XtIMAll);
}
XtDestroyWidget(dialog); /* blow away the dialog box and shell */
return answer;
}
The dialog supports three buttons, which are set to call the same
function when tickled by the user. The variable answer is set when the user
finally selects one of those choices:
void response(w, client, call)
Widget w;
XtPointer client;
XtPointer call;
{
int *answer = (int *) client;
XmAnyCallbackStruct *reason = (XmAnyCallbackStruct *) call;
switch (reason->reason) {
case XmCR_OK:
*answer = RET_YES; /* some #define value */
break;
case XmCR_CANCEL:
*answer = RET_NO;
break;
case XmCR_HELP:
*answer = RET_HELP;
break;
default:
return;
}
}
and the code unwraps back to the point at which an answer was needed and
continues from there.
[Thanks to Dan Heller (argv@sun.com); further code is in Dan's R3/contrib
WidgetWrap library. 2/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 114) How do I fork without hanging my parent X program?
An X-based application which spawns off other Unix processes which
continue to run after it is closed typically does not vanish until all of its
children are terminated; the children inherit from the parent the open X
connection to the display.
What you need to do is fork; then, immediately, in the child process,
close (ConnectionNumber(XtDisplay(widget)));
to close the file-descriptor in the display information. After this do your
exec. You will then be able to exit the parent.
[Thanks to Janet Anstett (anstettj@tramp.Colorado.EDU) and Gordon Freedman
(gjf00@duts.ccc.amdahl.com) 2/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 115) Why does XtAppAddInput not work as described?
I am using XtAppAddInput to read from a file, but the function is called even
when there isn't input pending.
XtAppAddInput is actually working as it is supposed to. When used on
files, it is called whenever the file is READY to be read, not when there is
new data to be read. The file is almost always ready to be read, however, if
only because you can spin back to the beginning and read data you've read
before. The result is that your function will almost always be called every
time around Xt[App]MainLoop(). There is a way to get the type of interaction
you are expecting; add this line to the beginning of your function to test
whether there is new data:
if (ioctl(fd, FIONREAD, &n) == -1 || n == 0) return;
But, because this is called frequently, your application is effectively in a
busy-wait; you may be better off not using XtAppAddInput and instead setting a
timer and in the timer procedure checking the file for input.
[courtesy Dan Heller (argv@ora.com), 8/90; mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu 5/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 116) How do I simulate a button press/release event for a widget?
You can do this using XSendEvent(); it's likely that you're not setting
the window field in the event, which Xt needs in order to match to the widget
which should receive the event.
If you're sending events to your own application, then you can use
XtDispatchEvent() instead. This is more efficient than XSendEvent() in that you
avoid a round-trip to the server.
Depending on how well the widget was written, you may be able to call
its action procedures in order to get the effects you want.
[courtesy Mark A. Horstman (mh2620@sarek.sbc.com), 11/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 117) Why doesn't anything appear when I run this simple program?
> ...
> the_window = XCreateSimpleWindow(the_display,
> root_window,size_hints.x,size_hints.y,
> size_hints.width,size_hints.height,BORDER_WIDTH,
> BlackPixel(the_display,the_screen),
> WhitePixel(the_display,the_screen));
> ...
> XSelectInput(the_display,the_window,ExposureMask|ButtonPressMask|
> ButtonReleaseMask);
> XMapWindow(the_display,the_window);
> ...
> XDrawLine(the_display,the_window,the_GC,5,5,100,100);
> ...
You are right to map the window before drawing into it. However, the
window is not ready to be drawn into until it actually appears on the screen --
until your application receives an Expose event. Drawing done before that will
generally not appear. You'll see code like this in many programs; this code
would appear after window was created and mapped:
while (!done)
{
XNextEvent(the_display,&the_event);
switch (the_event.type) {
case Expose: /* On expose events, redraw */
XDrawLine(the_display,the_window,the_GC,5,5,100,100);
break;
...
}
}
Note that there is a second problem: some Xlib implementations don't
set up the default graphics context to have correct foreground/background
colors, so this program could previously include this code:
...
the_GC_values.foreground=BlackPixel(the_display,the_screen); /* e.g. */
the_GC_values.background=WhitePixel(the_display,the_screen); /* e.g. */
the_GC = XCreateGC(the_display,the_window,
GCForeground|GCBackground,&the_GC_values);
...
Note: the code uses BlackPixel and WhitePixel to avoid assuming that 1 is
black and 0 is white or vice-versa. The relationship between pixels 0 and 1
and the colors black and white is implementation-dependent. They may be
reversed, or they may not even correspond to black and white at all.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 118) What is the difference between a Screen and a screen?
The 'Screen' is an Xlib structure which includes the information about
one of the monitors or virtual monitors which a single X display supports. A
server can support several independent screens. They are numbered unix:0.0,
unix:0.1, unix:0.2, etc; the 'screen' or 'screen_number' is the second digit --
the 0, 1, 2 which can be thought of as an index into the array of available
Screens on this particular Display connection.
The macros which you can use to obtain information about the particular
Screen on which your application is running typically have two forms -- one
which takes a Screen and one with takes both the Display and the screen_number.
In Xt-based programs, you typically use XtScreen(widget) to determine
the Screen on which your application is running, if it uses a single screen.
(Part of the confusion may arise from the fact that some of the macros
which return characteristics of the Screen have "Display" in the names --
XDisplayWidth, XDisplayHeight, etc.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 119)! Can I use C++ with X11? Motif? XView?
The X11R4/5 header files are compatible with C++. The Motif 1.1 header
files are usable as is inside extern "C" {...}. However, the definition of
String in Intrinsic.h can conflict with the libg++ or other String class and
needs to be worked around.
Some other projects which can help:
WWL, a set of C++ classes by Jean-Daniel Fekete to wrap X Toolkit
widgets, available via anonymous FTP from export.lcs.mit.edu as
contrib/WWL-1.1.tar.Z and lri.lri.fr (129.175.15.1) as pub/WWL-1.1.tar.Z.
It works by building a set of C++ classes in parallel to the class tree of the
widgets.
The InterViews toolkit is available with X releases or from
interviews.stanford.edu.
THINGS, a class library written at the Rome Air Force Base by the
Strategic Air Command, available as freeware on archive sites.
X++, another set of bindings for Motif 1.1 was done by the University
of Lowell Graphics Research Laboratory/Motif; it can be ftp'ed from 129.63.1.1
as Motif1.1-g++.tar.Z in graphics/MotifC++, or contact Fran Ward at
508-934-3628. A Technical Report on the binding is included. [4/91] A version
with fixes by Ronald van Loon <rvloon@cv.ruu.nl> is on decuac.dec.com.
The source code examples for Doug Young's "Object-Oriented Programming
with C++ and OSF/Motif" [ISBN 0-13-630252-1] do not include "widget wrappers"
but do include a set of classes that encapsulates higher-level facilities
commonly needed by Motif- or other Xt-based applications; check export in
~ftp/contrib/young.c++.tar.Z.
Rogue Wave offers "View.h++" for C++ programmers using Motif; info:
1-800-487-3217 or +1 503 754 2311.
A product called "Commonview" by Glockenspiel Ltd, Ireland (??)
apparently is a C++-based toolkit for multiple window systems, including PM,
Windows, and X/Motif.
UIT is a set of C++ classes embedding the XView toolkit; it is intended
for use with Sun's dev/GUIDE builder tool. Sources are on export.mit.edu.au as
UIT.tar.Z.
Also of likely use is ObjectCenter (Saber-C++).
[Thanks to Douglas S. Rand (dsrand@mitre.org) and George Wu (gwu@tcs.com);2/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 120)! Where can I obtain alternate language bindings to X?
Versions of the CLX Lisp bindings are part of the X11 core source
distributions. The latest version of CLX is on the R5 tape [10/91].
The SAIC Ada-X11 bindings are through anonymous ftp in /pub from
stars.rosslyn.unisys.com (128.126.164.2).
There is an X/Ada study team sponsored by GHG; +1 713 488 8806 and
ghg!xada@hounix.UUCP. It apparently is working out bindings.
GHG is developing X bindings and a complete Ada re-implementation
of X; check Lionel Hanley at 713-488-8806. [4/90]
Ada bindings to Motif, explicitly, will eventually be made available by
the Jet Propulsion Laboratories, probably through the normal electronic
means. Advance information can be obtained from dsouleles@dsfvax.jpl.nasa.gov,
who may respond as time permits.
SA-Motif is a complete binding to X Window and Motif for the Ada; it
is based in part upon the SAIC/Unisys bindings. SA-Motif is available on the
Sun3 and Sun4. Info: Systems Engineering Research Corporation, 2348 Leghorn
Street, #202/Mountain View, CA 94043/1-800-Ada-SERC (well!serc@apple.com).
Prolog bindings (called "XWIP") written by Ted Kim at UCLA while
supported in part by DARPA are available by anonymous FTP from
export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/xwip.tar.Z or ftp.cs.ucla.edu:pub/xwip.tar.Z.
These prolog language bindings depend on having a Quintus-type foreign function
interface in your prolog. The developer has gotten it to work with Quintus and
SICStus prolog. Inquiries should go to xwip@cs.ucla.edu. [3/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 121) How do I determine the name of an existing widget?
I have a widget ID and need to know what the name of that widget is.
Users of R4 and later are best off using the XtName() function, which
will work on both widgets and non-widget objects.
If you are still using R3, you can use this simple bit of code to do
what you want. Note that it depends on the widget's internal data structures
and is not necessarily portable to future versions of Xt, including R4.
#include <X11/CoreP.h>
#include <X11/Xresource.h>
String XtName (widget)
Widget widget; /* WILL work with non-widget objects */
{
return XrmNameToString(widget->core.xrm_name);
}
[7/90; modified with suggestion by Larry Rogers (larry@boris.webo.dg.com) 9/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 122) What widget is appropriate to use as a drawing canvas?
Some widget sets have a widget particularly for this purpose -- a
WorkSpace or DrawingArea which doesn't display anything but lets your Xt
application know when it has been re-exposed, resized, and when it has received
user key and mouse input.
The best thing to do for other widget sets -- including the Athena set
-- is to create or obtain such a widget; this is preferable to drawing into a
core widget and grabbing events with XtAddEventHandler(), which loses a number
of benefits of Xt and encapsulation of the functionality . At least one
version has been posted to comp.sources.x (name???). The publicly-available
programs xball and xpic include other versions. And the Athena Widget manual
includes a tutorial and source code to a simple Window widget which is suitable
for use.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 123) Why do I get a BadDrawable error drawing to XtWindow(widget)?
I'm doing this in order to get a window into which I can do Xlib graphics
within my Xt-based program:
> canvas = XtCreateManagedWidget ( ...,widgetClass,...) /* drawing area */
> ...
> window = XtWindow(canvas); /* get the window associated with the widget */
> ...
> XDrawLine (...,window,...); /* produces error */
The window associated with the widget is created as a part of the
realization of the widget. Using a window id of NULL ("no window") could
create the error that you describe. It is necessary to call XtRealizeWidget()
before attempting to use the window associated with a widget.
Note that the window will be created after the XtRealizeWidget() call,
but that the server may not have actually mapped it yet, so you should also
wait for an Expose event on the window before drawing into it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 124) Can XGetWindowAttributes get a window's background pixel/pixmap?
No. Once set, the background pixel or pixmap of a window cannot be
re-read by clients. The reason for this is that a client can create a pixmap,
set it to be the background pixmap of a window, and then free the pixmap. The
window keeps this background, but the pixmap itself is destroyed. If you're
sure a window has a background pixel (not a pixmap), you can use XClearArea()
to clear a region to the background color and then use XGetImage() to read
back that pixel. However, this action alters the contents of the window, and
it suffers from race conditions with exposures. [courtesy Dave Lemke of NCD
and Stuart Marks of Sun]
Note that the same applies to the border pixel/pixmap. This is a
(mis)feature of the protocol which allows the server is free to manipulate the
pixel/pixmap however it wants. By not requiring the server to keep the
original pixel or pixmap, some (potentially a lot of) space can be saved.
[courtesy Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 125) Why doesn't GXxor produce mathematically-correct color values?
When using GXxor you may expect that drawing with a value of black on a
background of black, for example, should produce white. However, the drawing
operation does not work on RGB values but on colormap indices. The color that
the resulting colormap index actually points to is undefined and visually
random unless you have actually filled it in yourself. [On many X servers Black
and White often 0/1 or 1/0; programs taking advantage of this mathematical
coincidence will break.]
If you want to be combining colors with GXxor, then you should be
allocating a number of your own color cells and filling them with your chosen
pre-computed values.
If you want to use GXxor simply to switch between two colors, then you
can take the shortcut of setting the background color in the GC to 0 and the
foreground color to a value such that when it draws over red, say, the result
is blue, and when it draws over blue the result is red. This foreground value
is itself the XOR of the colormap indices of red and blue.
[Thanks to Chris Flatters (cflatter@zia.aoc.nrao.EDU) and Ken Whaley
(whaley@spectre.pa.dec.com), 2/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 126) Why does every color I allocate show up as black?
Make sure you're using 16 bits and not 8. The red, green, and blue
fields of an XColor structure are scaled so that 0 is nothing and 65535 is
full-blast. If you forget to scale (using, for example, 0-255 for each color)
the XAllocColor function will perform correctly but the resulting color is
usually black.
[Thanks to Paul Asente, asente@adobe.com, 7/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 127) Why does the pixmap I copy to the screen show up as garbage?
The initial contents of pixmaps are undefined. This means that most
servers will allocate the memory and leave around whatever happens to be there
-- which is usually garbage. You probably want to clear the pixmap first using
XFillRectangle() with a function of GXcopy and a foreground pixel of whatever
color you want as your background (or 0L if you are using the pixmap as a
mask). [courtesy Dave Lemke of NCD and Stuart Marks of Sun]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 128)- How can my application iconify itself?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 129) How do I check whether a window ID is valid?
My program has the ID of a window on a remote display. I want to check whether
the window exists before doing anything with it.
Because X is asynchronous, there isn't a guarantee that the window
would still exist between the time that you got the ID and the time you sent an
event to the window or otherwise manipulated it. What you should do is send the
event without checking, but install an error handler to catch any BadWindow
errors, which would indicate that the window no longer exists. This scheme will
work except on the [rare] occasion that the original window has been destroyed
and its ID reallocated to another window.
[courtesy Ken Lee (klee@wsl.dec.com), 4/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 130) Why can't my program work with tvtwm or swm?
A number of applications, including xwd, xwininfo, and xsetroot, do not
handle the virtual root window which tvtwm and swm use; they typically return
the wrong child of root. A general solution is to add this code or to use it in
your own application where you would normally use RootWindow(dpy,screen):
/* Function Name: GetVRoot
* Description: Gets the root window, even if it's a virtual root
* Arguments: the display and the screen
* Returns: the root window for the client
*/
#include <X11/Xatom.h>
Window GetVRoot(dpy, scr)
Display *dpy;
int scr;
{
Window rootReturn, parentReturn, *children;
unsigned int numChildren;
Window root = RootWindow(dpy, scr);
Atom __SWM_VROOT = None;
int i;
__SWM_VROOT = XInternAtom(dpy, "__SWM_VROOT", False);
XQueryTree(dpy, root, &rootReturn, &parentReturn, &children, &numChildren);
for (i = 0; i < numChildren; i++) {
Atom actual_type;
int actual_format;
long nitems, bytesafter;
Window *newRoot = NULL;
if (XGetWindowProperty(dpy, children[i], __SWM_VROOT, 0, 1,
False, XA_WINDOW, &actual_type, &actual_format, &nitems,
&bytesafter, (unsigned char **) &newRoot) == Success && newRoot) {
root = *newRoot;
break;
}
}
return root;
}
[courtesy David Elliott (dce@smsc.sony.com). Similar code is in ssetroot, a
version of xsetroot distributed with tvtwm. 2/91]
A header file by Andreas Stolcke of ICSI on export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/vroot.h
functions similarly by providing macros for RootWindow and DefaultRootWindow;
code can include this header file first to run properly in the presence of a
virtual desktop.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 131) Can I have two applications draw to the same window?
Yes. The X server assigns IDs to windows and other resources (actually,
the server assigns some bits, the client others), and any application that
knows the ID can manipulate the resource.
The problem you face is how to disseminate the window ID to multiple
applications. A simple way to handle this (and which solves the problem of the
applications' running on different machines) is in the first application to
create a specially-named property on the root-window and put the window ID into
it. The second application then retrieves the property, whose name it also
knows, and then can draw whatever it wants into the window.
[Note: this scheme works iff there is only one instance of the first
application running, and the scheme is subject to the limitations mentioned
in the Question about using window IDs on remote displays.]
Note also that you will still need to coordinate any higher-level
cooperation among your applications.
Note also that two processes can share a window but should not try to
use the same server connection. If one process is a child of the other, it
should close down the connection to the server and open its own connection.
[mostly courtesy Phil Karlton (karlton@wpd.sgi.com) 6/90]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 132) How do I keep a window from being resized by the user?
Resizing the window is done through the window manager; window managers
can pay attention to the size hints your application places on the window, but
there is no guarantee that the window manager will listen. You can try setting
the minimum and maximum size hints to your target size and hope for the best.
[1/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 133) How do I make text and bitmaps blink in X?
There is no easy way. Unless you're willing to depend on some sort of
extension (as yet non-existent), you have to arrange for the blinking yourself,
either by redrawing the contents periodically or, if possible, by playing games
with the colormap and changing the color of the contents.
[Thanks to mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (der Mouse), 7/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 134) How do I render rotated text?
Xlib intentionally does not provide such sophisticated graphics
capabilities, leaving them up to server-extensions or clients-side graphics
libraries.
Your only choice, if you want to stay within the core X protocol, is to
render the text into a pixmap, read it back via XGetImage(), rotate it "by
hand" with whatever matrices you want, and put it back to the server via
XPutImage(); more specifically:
1) create a bitmap B and write your text to it.
2) create an XYBitmap image I from B (via XGetImage).
3) create an XYBitmap Image I2 big enough to handle the transformation.
4) for each x,y in I2, I2(x,y) = I(a,b) where
a = x * cos(theta) - y * sin(theta)
b = x * sin(theta) + y * cos(theta)
5) render I2
Note that you should be careful how you implement this not to lose
bits; an algorithm based on shear transformations may in fact be better.
The high-level server-extensions and graphics packages available for X
also permit rendering of rotated text: Display PostScript, PEX, PHiGS, and GKS,
although most are not capable of arbitrary rotation and probably do not use the
same fonts that would be found on a printer.
In addition, if you have enough access to the server to install a font
on it, you can create a font which consists of letters rotated at some
predefined angle. Your application can then itself figure out placement of each
glyph.
[courtesy der Mouse (mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu), Eric Taylor
(etaylor@wilkins.bmc.tmc.edu), and Ken Lee (klee@wsl.dec.com), 11/90;
Liam Quin (lee@sq.com), 12/90]
InterViews (C++ UI toolkit, in the X contrib software) has support for
rendering rotated fonts in X. It could be one source of example code.
[Brian R. Smith (brsmith@cs.umn.edu), 3/91]
Another possibility is to use the Hershey Fonts; they are
stroke-rendered and can be used by X by converting them into XDrawLine
requests. [eric@pencom.com, 10/91]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 135) Why can't my program get a standard colormap?
I have an image-processing program which uses XGetRGBColormap() to get the
standard colormap, but it doesn't work.
XGetRGBColormap() when used with the property XA_RGB_DEFAULT_MAP does
not create a standard colormap -- it just returns one if one already exists.
Use xstdcmap or do what it does in order to create the standard colormap first.
[1/91; from der Mouse (mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu)]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 136) What is the X Registry? (How do I reserve names?)
There are places in the X Toolkit, in applications, and in the X
protocol that define and use string names. The context is such that conflicts
are possible if different components use the same name for different things.
The MIT X Consortium maintains a registry of names in these domains:
orgainization names, selection names, selection targets, resource types,
application classes, and class extension record types; and several others.
The list as of 1/90 is in the directory mit/doc/Registry on the R4
tape.
To register names (first come, first served) or to ask questions send
to xregistry@expo.lcs.mit.edu; be sure to include a postal address for
confirmation.
[11/90; condensed from Asente/Swick Appendix H]