From: John Johnstone [jj_usenet@onay-amspay.mail.com] Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2000 7:55 PM To: Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com Subject: Re: Large color bitmap backdrops with CDE There are quite a few places that this process can go wrong. I know about a few of them from a lot of trial and error. Backdrops can also go in the users individual [.dt.backdrops] directory. As you've probably done already, the file has to have a .PM extension. I don't know what the maximum file size is. Have you had success with smaller files? I've used files up to 700 blocks. There is a bug in all but the most recent versions of XV that causes binary junk to be written at the tail end of the XPM file. You can spot it by editing the file. You can either take it out with an editor or update your XV. The session manager will try to tile the image so I wouldn't be surprised if 3700 blocks didn't work based on size alone. I haven't read the standard for XPM files if there is one, but there does seem to be some variability in the way that different applications create the files. It's the header data at the top that varies. I found the best results by starting with a known-to-work .PM file that comes with CDE and then using it as a template to re-work a file that was created by XV. I have some terrific looking patterns that I'd love to use as a backdrop but they have a large number of colors. Since I'm using a 4D20 with 24-bits @ 1600x1200, the number of colors for the X server isn't a problem. When you go past some particular number of colors, probably a number close to the number of printable ASCII characters, the XPM format requires that each pixel be represented by two ASCII characters instead of just one. XV creates the XPM files with the two characters but the session manager can't display them. In typical brain-dead C/Unix fashion it does it silently with no error message; just no file displayed. You should check your file and see what you've got. If your file is 3700 blocks it's likely that you're toast because of the two characters. In any case, you'll definitely want to get a small easy to work with file that works first and then try to get the larger files working. You also need to just keep track of how many colors you're trying to display and the number of colors that eXcursion is running with. If it's 256, it's easy to exceed that even if you don't have a problem with XPM file compatibility. Jung, Randy wrote: > > Hi, > > I am trying to convert a color bitmap for use as a backdrop under CDE. I am > running OpenVMS 6.2-1H3 and DECwindows Motif 1.2-5. I am also displaying it > on a Windows NT workstation using Excursion V. 7.1.732. > > I've set things up according to the FAQ - I used XV to convert the bitmap to > a .XPM file, moved the file into the > SYS$COMMON:[CDE$DEFAULTS.USER.BACKDROPS] dirctory. However, the file does > not appear in the list of backdrops after invoking the style manager. I > copied a file from the default backdrops and put it in that directory and it > did appear in the list of backdrops. > > The Excursion message log displays "Reply sent to client #6, > Request=AlloColor, Error=BadAlloc" messages. I don't know if that's the > problem or not. > > THe bitmap is quite large - about 3700 blocks. Are there any limitations > with CDE displaying such a large bitmap? Is there something I can do tweak > Exursion(assuming it's an Excursion issue) to get this to work? > > Cheers, > > Randy Jung > System Architect > Credit Union Central of Manitoba > E-mail: Randy.Jung@creditunion.mb.ca > Phone: (204)985-4750 > FAX: (204)943-8386