-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frequently Asked Questions about X with Answers SunFLASH Vol 14 #5 February 1990 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (This is a long (almost 900 lines) article from USENET -johnj) Date: 30 Jan 90 21:57:33 GMT From: ics!xug@CS.BU.EDU (X User's Group) Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about X with Answers [long monthly posting] [Last changed: 1/30/90] This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions 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. This article includes answers to these questions (they are in no particular order yet): 0) Where can I obtain X source? 1) Where can I obtain X11R4? 2) Where can I obtain Motif? 3) Where can I obtain software implementing Open Look? 4) Where can I obtain other X sources? 5) What is the xstuff mail-archive? 6) Where can I obtain patches to X11R4? 7) Where can I find books and articles on X? 8) What courses on X are available? 9) What are these common abbreviations? 10) What is XUG? 11) What conferences on X are coming up? 12) What is the current state of the world in X terminals? 13) How can I get X on a PC? 14) Where can I obtain an X-based editor or word-processor? 15) Where can I obtain an X-based paint/draw program? 16) Where can I obtain an X-based spreadsheet? 17) How do I convert Mac/TIFF/GIF/Sun/PICT/Face/img/FAX/etc images to X? 18) How do I use an alternate window manager with DEC's session manager? 19) How do I build X with gcc? 20) What are these funny problems compiling X11R3 on the Sun4? 21) What are these funny problems installing X11R4 on the Sun running SunOS 4? 22) Where can I get a fast X server for a workstation? 23) Why doesn't anything appear when I run this simple program? 24) What is the difference between a Screen and a screen? 25) Why do I get a BadDrawable error drawing to XtWindow(widget)? 26) Can I get the background pixel/pixmap of a window using GetWindowAttributes? 27) Why does the pixmap I copy to the screen show up as garbage? 28) Why doesn't my program get the keystrokes I select for? 29) Why does the R3 xterm, et al, fail against the R4 server? 30) Where can I obtain alternate language bindings to Xlib? 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. The answers in this iteration are acknowledged to be partial (and to lean more towards products than to programming). This posting is intended to be distributed at approximately the beginning of each month, or more often as needed. 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. -------------------------------------------------- 0) Where can I obtain X source? The MIT Software Center distributes X11R3 on three 1600bpi half-inch tapes. Call the X Hotline at (617) 258-8330 for prerecorded ordering information. Intelligent Software Products, Inc., (516-766-2867) also ships X11R3 [formats are unknown]. Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc., (617-547-0510) ships X11R3 on half-inch and quarter-inch formats. The Free Software Foundation (617-876-3296) sells X11R3 on half-inch tapes and on QIC-24 cartridges. Automata Design Associates (215-646-4894) sells X11R3 source on 5.25" high-density floppies and QIC-24 quarter-inch cartridge tapes. European sites can obtain a free distribution from an unnamed Good Samaritan who may be reached at chx400!pan!jw or cernvax!pan!jw. (See below for FTP sites.) 1) Where can I obtain X11R4? The MIT Software Center is shipping X11R4 on four 1600bpi half-inch tapes. Call the X Hotline for prerecorded ordering information and a good product description. Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc., ships X11R4 on half-inch, quarter-inch, and TK50 formats. Call 617-547-0510 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. UK sites can obtain R4 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, 01-589-5111#5037, or to ukuug-soft@uk.ac.ic.doc. X11R4 is ftp-able from expo.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 (5) Australia munnari.oz.au 128.250.1.21 X.V11/R4 The release is available to DEC Easynet sites as CRL::"/pub/X11/R4". [additional information to be filled in as received] -------------------------------------------------- 2) Where can I obtain Motif? 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. Systems known to be shipping now: HP (sans UIL), Apollo (sans UIL), SCO, ISC. In addition, independent binary vendors produce Motif toolkits. ICS makes several binary kits, notably for Sun, Apple; Quest (408-988-8880) sells kits for Suns, as well. 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. Call the Motif Desk at OSF at 617-621-8835 for ordering information. An old version of the Motif X11R3++ Intrinsics is available for public ftp on expo.lcs.mit.edu, but is known to be of little use and possibly corrupted. -------------------------------------------------- 3) Where can I obtain software implementing Open Look? Sun's XView has a SunView-style API. A new version is on the X11R4 tape; a newer version is also available (as of 2/90) on expo.lcs.mit.edu for anonymous ftp. AT&T's Open Look GUI 2.0 Xt-based toolkit will be generally available 2/90; for information contact Joanne Newbauer at (201)-829-8959. The current version is still available; contact 1-800-828-UNIX#544 for information. Sun is shipping OpenWindows 1.0 for Sparc, Sun-3, and Sun386i machines; contact your local sales representative for more details. Solbourne's extensible C++-based Object Interface Library will be distributed by AT&T [date of availability appx. 6/90]. -------------------------------------------------- 4) Where can I obtain other X sources? User-contributed software is distributed through the newsgroup comp.sources.x, moderated by Dan Heller (argv@island.uu.net); also check that group for posting information. Miles O'Neal of Sales Technologies, Inc., started a Public Domain Widget Library in 11/88. The PDWL is a repository of widgets donated for the use of other X programmers and also of toolkit documentation, widget-writing documentation, better documentation for extant widgets and toolkits, and widget-writing tools. In addition, the PDWL also stores information on commercially available toolkits and other sites from which public-domain widget-related and X-related stuff may be obtained. It is a place for non-commercial stuff not readily available elsewhere. You can access the PDWL by sending electronic mail to the account gatech!stiatl!xwidgets. Send a Subject line of 'help' to obtain more information on retrieving widgets and on submitting sources. The machine expo.lcs.mit.edu has a great deal of user-contributed software in contrib/ and pub/ directories; a good deal of it is present in current or earlier versions on the X11R3 and X11R4 contrib tapes. The West Coast Xarchive is administered by Jim Turner of Daisy Systems. The archive contains a complete comp.sources.x directory and a copy of what can be found on expo/contrib and expo/pub. The archive can currently be accessed at 1200/2400 baud or at 19.2K baud (Telebit Trailblazer). Access is by anonymous login; the userid is UXarchiv with no password. The dialin numbers are: 415-967-4619 1200/2400 dial-in 415-967-4718 trailblazer dial-in To get a current listing of what files are available and where they can be found, download the file /usr/spool/uucppublic/Xarchive/ls-lR.Z FTP sites and software available (list as of X11R3; also see above): brazos.rice.edu 128.42.42.2 pub/X11R3/core.src charon.mit.edu 18.80.0.13 perl+patches, xdvi cs.purdue.edu 128.10.2.1 rcs,xspeed j.cc.purdue.edu 128.210.0.3 comp.sources.{unix,x,amiga}, elm, uupc nl.cs.cmu.edu 128.2.222.56 Fuzzy Pixmap 0.84 in /usr/mlm/ftp shambhala.berkeley.edu 128.32.132.54 xrn terminator.cc.umich.edu 35.1.33.8 xscheme, msdos, atari cayuga.cs.rochester.edu 192.5.53.209 Xfig,LaTeX styles,Jove cfdl.larc.nasa.gov 128.155.24.55 gnu, rfc, sun, X, ucb, odu, vm cheddar.cs.wisc.edu 128.105.2.113 Common Lisp stuff, X11 courier fonts cs.orst.edu 128.193.32.1 Xlisp dinorah.wustl.edu 128.252.118.101 X11R3/core.src expo.lcs.mit.edu 18.30.0.212 a home of X, portable bitmaps gatekeeper.dec.com 128.45.9.52 X11,etc... giza.cis.ohio-state.edu 128.146.8.61 X11R3, PEX hotel.cis.ksu.edu 129.130.10.12 XBBS, msdos, U3G toolkit icarus.riacs.edu 128.102.64.1 SLIP, chkpt, macdump, Xpostit interviews.stanford.edu 36.22.0.175 InterViews X toolkit jpl-mil.jpl.nasa.gov 128.149.1.101 Tex, Mac, Gnu, Xv11R{2,3} m9-520-1.mit.edu 18.80.0.45 Xim (X image viewer) mordred.cs.purdue.edu 128.10.2.2 X11R3 polyslo.calpoly.edu 129.65.17.1 src/spaceout.tar.Z for X11 scam.berkeley.edu 128.32.138.1 X sources, etc. sun.soe.clarkson.edu 128.153.12.3 X11 fonts, TeX think.com 10.4.0.6 X11.2 Interviews 3d vaxa.isi.edu 128.9.0.33 X, db wheaties.ai.mit.edu 128.52.32.13 "tX11" xanth.cs.odu.edu 128.82.8.1 comp.srcs.{x,unix,misc,games,amiga},X [This is from a file posted in early July; sorry -- attribution is lost.] In addition, UUNET Source Archives (703-876-5050) tracks comp.sources.x and provides 600MB+ of compressed programs on two 6250 bpi or five 1/4" tapes. -------------------------------------------------- 5) 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 1-10 11-20 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}!eddie!expo.lcs.mit.edu!xstuff. [based on information from the MIT X Consortium, 8/89.] -------------------------------------------------- 6) Where can I obtain patches to X11R4? The xstuff server now has one patch for X11R4. Send to xstuff the Subject line send fixes 1 Patches are typically also distributed through the newsgroup comp.sources.x. Some source re-sellers may be including patches in their source distributions of X11R4. -------------------------------------------------- 7) Where can I find books and articles on X? Ken Lee of the DEC Western Software Laboratory regularly posts to comp.windows.x and ba.windows.x a list of reference books and articles on X and X programming. Here is an unordered set of the most useful reference books and tutorials, most of which appear on that list (comments are gathered from a variety of places and are unattributable): Jones, Oliver, "Introduction to the X Window System," Prentice Hall, 1989. A fine introduction to programming with Xlib; fairly good background to the X protocol; nice discussion of Xlib, the X library. ISBN 0-13-499997-5. (There is a new version. ISBN?) Young, Doug. "The X Window System: Applications and Programming with Xt (Motif Version)," Prentice Hall, 1989 (ISBN 0-13-497-074-8). The excellent tutorial "X Window Systems Programming and Applications with Xt," (ISBN 0-13-972167-3) updated for Motif. [The examples from the Motif version are available on expo in ~ftp/contrib/young.motif.tar.Z] Scheifler, Robert, James Gettys, and Ron Newman, "X Window System: C Library and Protocol Reference," Digital Press, 1988. The bible on X. This is the most complete published description of the X programming interface and X protocol. ISBN 1-55558-012-2. DP order number EY-6737E-DP. 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. ISBN 0-937175-26-9 (volume 1) and ISBN 0-937175-27-7 (volume 2). Nye, Adrian, and Tim O'Reilly, "X Toolkit Programming Manual, Volume 4," O'Reilly and Associates, 1989. The folks at O'Reilly give their treatment to programming with the MIT X11R3 Intrinsics. O'Reilly, Tim, ed., "X Toolkit Reference Manual, Volume 5," O'Reilly and Associates, 1989. A reference manual for the MIT X11R3 Xt. Rosenthal, David S.H., "Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual Version 1.0 (MIT Consortium Standard)." The first real ICCCM, available on the R4 tape; a version is also available from the xstuff mail-archive-server. (Prentice-Hall ordering is 201-767-5937. O'Reilly ordering is 800-338-NUTS.) In addition, check the X11R4 core distribution in doc/tutorials for some useful papers and tutorials, particularly the file doc/tutorials/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. -------------------------------------------------- 8) What courses on X are available? 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). Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc., offers several multi-day, hands-on courses on X, Xt, and the Xaw, HP, and Motif widget sets, in particular. Information is available at 617-547-0510 and info@ics.com. Intelligent Visual Computing teaches several Xt-based lab courses on-site. IVC is at 919-481-1353 or at info@ivc.uu.net. Various vendors are also beginning to offer X training, usually specific to Xt and a proprietary widget set; HP and DEC are also offering Xlib courses. Advanced Computing Environments periodically offers at least a two-day Introduction course. Contact Susie Karlson at 415-941-3399 for information. Various universities are offering short X courses or overviews: UCLA, Dartmouth, University of Lowell, ... Among the best places to find courses are at the various Unix conferences -- Uniforum, Usenix, Unix Expo, Xhibition, the MIT X Technical Conference, &c. [additional information to be filled in as received] -------------------------------------------------- 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. XUI: DEC's X-programmer's toolkit, including a widget set and a high- level widget description language, is being phased out. Xhp: 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. dxwm: The DECwindows window manager is part of DEC's current X release. mwm: The Motif Window Manager is distributed with OSF/Motif source and is available from vendors in binary form. 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. ICCCM: The Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual explains the set of standard conventions which X clients should follow to allow them to cooperate in the areas of selections, cut buffers, window management, session management, and resources. The latest version is on the X11R4 tape. RTFM: Common X-speak meaning "please locate and consult the relevant documentation". UTSL: A common expression meaning "take advantage of the fact that you aren't limited by a binary license -- Use The Source, Luke". -------------------------------------------------- 10) What is XUG? The X User's Group was formed in January of 1988. Its purpose is to encourage X development by providing information on the X Window System to all who are interested. - Local Area Groups: [this list is in the process of being updated]: Bay Area Jim Turner, 415/960-0123 Boston Mitch Trachtenberg, 617/621-8700 Cleveland Mike Kolberg, 216/243-1198 New York City #TBC# Princeton, NJ Joe Camaratta, 609/734-6500 Research Triangle Park Steven Thiedke, 919/481-1353 Washington, DC Thomas Fagre, 703/760-0246 England Ray Anderson, (44) 223 462131 France Daniel Dardailler, (33) 93 65 77 71 Singapore Chee Keong Law, 772-3116 - XNextEvent: the several-times-yearly newsletter includes articles of general interest. To join, form a local group, contribute to XNextEvent, or help out in any other way, contact Alex Fisher at: XUG, c/o Integrated Computer Solutions, 163 Harvard Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, 617/547-0634 xug@expo.lcs.mit.edu xug@ics.com -------------------------------------------------- 11) What conferences on X are coming up? Several booths at NCGA'90 (Anaheim, March 19-22) will be showing X. Call 1-800-225-NCGA for more information. "Discover Unix 1990" (Tyngsboro, MA, April 2-4) has some high-powered X talks. Call Andree Fontaine at 508-649-9731 for attendee information. The Xhibition90 X trade show and conference is being held in San Jose May 21-25. Xhibition is focused on the X Window System and offers tutorials, panels, presentations, and vendor exhibits. Call Xhibition at 617-547-0510 for information. -------------------------------------------------- 12) What is the current state of the world in X terminals? Here is a selection of vendors with "impressions of consensus opinions". Acer (408-922-0333) has the Xebra 1000, based on an 8086 cpu, with a 640x480 monochrome screen. "Low performance." AT&T's (800-247-1212; ask for local dealer) 730X has a 1Kx1K b/w display with a 1:1 aspect ratio. The terminal supports multiple Telnet sessions and AT&T windowing in addition to X. [Starlan only.] "Very, very nice, but pricey." C. Itoh (714-660-1421) "Rumor: making a terminal that Sun will OEM, if it doesn't pull out of the business first." DEC (800-343-4040) is slated to ship in 2/90 the VT1000, a home-brew 15" 1024x864 monochrome terminal using the TI 34010. Gipsi S.A. (+33 (1) 30.60.75.00 or Jeff Abramatic at jfa@gipsi.fr) in 10/89 announced "le tX", a line of 68030-based X terminals running X11R3. Model Memory Resolution Display Refresh (Hz) Price (FF) M 2 MB 1280x960x1 19" B&W 66 32 400 Me 2 MB 1280x960x2 19" Greyscale 66 38 000 C4 2 MB 1280x768x4 16" Colour 60 59 900 C8 4 MB 1280x1024x8 19" Colour 60 79 400 Expansion is up to 8MB and 8 planes. GraphOn (800-472-7466) OptimaX 200 runs a server on the host which translates from X protocol to a proprietary protocol which can run over a serial line. The screen is 14". The terminal is based on a 12MHz 68000. (See the December 1989 issue of XNextEvent for an informal review.) "Best available solution for RS232C lines." HP (800-752-0900; ask for nearest sales office) offers the 700/X series of terminals using on the TI 34010. Bit-mapped graphics monitors with resolutions of 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768 are supported. All units come standard with 1 Mbyte of RAM expandable up to 4 Mbytes and display 16 colors from a palette of 4096 or up to 16 levels of gray-scale. Human Design Systems (800-437-1551) offers several combinations of 14", 16", and 19" color, grey-scale, and mono screens, at least 1Kx1K. All support thin and thick Ethernet. High-end models are expandable to 8.5MB. "Slow." Jupiter (508-836-4400) Network Computing Devices (415-694-0650) offers several terminals. The NCD16 has a 1Kx1K 16" square display, a 12.5MHz 68000, a non-optical mouse, a DEC-influenced keyboard, and an X11R3 server. The base configuration comes with 1.5M memory. There is an option for down-loading the server into RAM. (This is the terminal offered by MIPS and DG; it is also the Tektronix XN5.) There is also a 19" version with 1280x1024 resolution. The new 17c is an 8-bit color 1024x768 display. "Nice engineers' terminals." NCR (513-445-2033) offers the Towerview with 1024x840 resolution and a PROM-based server. The Towerview supports serial connections. Fonts are down-loaded. The XL15 and XL19 have 15", 1024x800 and 19", 1280x1024 displays, respecitively. "Seems to be designed for the PC office." Princeton Graphic Systems (800-221-1490) has introduced the Ultra X line with monochrome up to 1024x768 and color up to 1024x1280. Expandable to 8MB. Qume (408-942-4000) has announced an X terminal called the QXT 10 X. Spectragraphics (619-450-0611) offers an X terminal with emulation for the IBM 3270 and related terminals. Tektronix (203-877-1494; or Rick Kamp rickka@orca.WV.tek.com) offers the Model 4211 Graphics Netstation using the TI 34010 graphics processor. The 15" screen is 1024x768 color. The XN11 is a PseudoColor device with up to 8 planes. The 16" and 19" monitors have the 1024x768 resolution. There is also an XN10 [which differs in unknown ways]. Visual Technologies (800-VISUALC; MA 508-836-4400) offers the 640X based on a 12MHz 68000. The display is 1024x800 14" monochrome. The 719 increases speed to 16Mhz and offers a 19" display. The 719x Turbo offers grey- scale images. "Reasonable low-cost-per-seat performance station." -------------------------------------------------- 13) How can I get X on a PC? Locus Computing (800-955-6287; CA: 213-670-6500; UK: 44-296-89911) has a server called PC-Xsight which also appears in Acer's X terminal. HP (800-752-0900) has a DOS server which was done for its Vectra 386. Graphic Software Systems (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]. 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 programs. VisionWare is at 612-377-3627 (UK: +44-532-526614) Integrated Inference Machines (714-978-6201) 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. IBM is rumored to offer a product; part #5709-029. Hummingbird Communications (Canada 416-470-1203) produces the HCL-eXceed and HCL-eXceed Plus for EGA, VGA, and VGA+ controllers. AGE (619-565-7373) offers the XoftWare TIGA. -------------------------------------------------- 14) Where can I obtain an X-based editor or word-processor? You can ftp the latext version of emacs, including X11 support, from prep.ai.mit.edu [18.71.0.38]. The file you probably want is ~ftp/pub/gnu/emacs-18.55.tar.Z, or similarly-named files. Epoch is a modified version of Gnu Emacs with additional facilities useful in an X environment. Epoch is available by anonymous ftp from cs.uiuc.edu (128.174.252.1), in the directory pub/epoch-files. 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. 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)] In addition: FrameMaker and FrameWriter are available as X-based binary products for several machines. Frame is at 800-843-7263 (CA: 408-433-3311). InDepthEdit is available from Non Standard Logics (33 (1) 43 36 77 50). DECwrite is available from DEC for some DEC hardware. SunWrite is available from Sun. IslandWrite will soon be available from Island Graphics (415-491-1000) for some HP platforms. Interleaf is currently available from Interleaf (800-241-7700, MA: 617-577-9800) on all Sun and DEC platforms; others are under development. -------------------------------------------------- 15) Where can I obtain an X-based paint/draw program? dxpaint is a bitmap-oriented drawing program most like MacPaint; it's good for use by artists but bad for drawing figures or drafting. dxpaint is part of the Ultrix 3.x release. xpic 2.5a 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 1.4.3 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. The latest is on the R4 contrib tape in clients/xfig. idraw 2.5 supports numerous fonts and various line styles and arbitrary rotations. It supports zoom and scroll and color draws and fills. On the R4 tape; see also interviews-request@interviews.stanford.edu. [courtesy Jim Helman (jim@kaos.Stanford.EDU) 7/89; some comments added by XUG] -------------------------------------------------- 16) 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)] BBN Software Products BBN/Slate 617-873-3984 (Scott Richardson) (the product includes WordProcessing, Spreadsheet, Graphics, Image Processing, Foreign Language WordProcessing, Electronic Mail, and Elecronic Conferencing) -------------------------------------------------- 17) How do I convert Mac/TIFF/GIF/Sun/PICT/Face/img/FAX/etc images to 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. The latest version, PBMPLUS, was posted to the net about 11/22/89; it is also on the R4 tape under contrib/clients/pbmplus. Useful for viewing some image-formats is Jim Frost's xloadimage, a version of which is in the R4 contrib/clients/xloadimage. -------------------------------------------------- 18) How do I use an alternate 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: /usr/bin/X11/your_favorite_wm -------------------------------------------------- 19) How do I build X with gcc? MIT is now using regularly the Free Software Foundation's GNU-CC to build the X distribution and uses gcc-built servers to test performance increases. [These options are gathered from several descriptions of building X with gcc 1.34, 1.35, and 1.36]: Use the options -O -fstrength-reduce -fpcc-struct-return -traditional may also be necessary if your version of gcc is sufficiently old. Do not use -finline-functions, particularly on the R4 server. Make sure to run 'fixincludes' before doing anything. HOWEVER, there is a bug in gcc 1.34 and 1.36 (but not in 1.35 or 1.37, which is due soon), which miscompiles things of the form (expr == 0 ? exp1 : exp2). The fix needed in X11R4 (and probably X11R3) is to change the definition of XtNewString in Intrinsic.h to: #define XtNewString(str) \ ((str) != NULL ? (strcpy(XtMalloc((unsigned)strlen(str) + 1), str)) : NULL) -------------------------------------------------- 20) What are these funny problems compiling X11R3 on the Sun4? cc -c -O -I. -I../../include -I../../.././X11 -I../mfb cfbbitblt.c cc: Fatal error in iropt: Illegal instruction (core dumped) Known problems with the Sun4 optimizer render the -O flag unusable on this file. In addition, there is a problem in all of the procedures that return a parameter that was never referenced. Instead of returning the string, the compiler with optimization seems to be returning the last value computed. You can compile lib/Xt/TMparse.c without optimization; alternatively, you can replace the "return str" in various routines to use that parameter [courtesy of Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium]: #ifdef sparc /* * The silly optimizer in SunOS 4.0.3 and below generates bogus code that * causes the value of the most recently used variable to be returned instead * of the value passed in. */ static String silly_optimizer_kludge; #define BROKEN_OPTIMIZER_HACK(val) silly_optimizer_kludge = (val) #else #define BROKEN_OPTIMIZER_HACK(val) val #endif and have routines end with return BROKEN_OPTIMIZER_HACK(str); Note also that the SPARCstation1 has a bug in its use of -misalign; a fix should be obtained from Sun. -------------------------------------------------- 21) What are these funny problems installing X11R4 on the Sun running SunOS 4? All of the executables that I try to run have the following results: ld.so: libXmu.so.4: not found If you are building with shared libraries on a Sun (we suggest that you do), remember that you need to run "ldconfig" as root after installing the shared libraries. 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 or /usr/5lib for these programs to work (or else those programs must be linked statically). [courtesy MIT X Consortium] -------------------------------------------------- 22) Where can I get a fast X server for a workstation? The R4 server should be among the fastest available for most machines. The "Purdue" speedups significantly speed up the X11R3 server. Look on expo.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/Purdue.2.[01]-tar.Z. (You'll also need gcc.) International Quest Corporation (408-988-8289) has an optimized R3 server for Sun3/4/386i under SunOS 4.0 and also an optimized R4 server. Torch Technology Ltd makes several R3-based tuned servers, most notably for Sun 3 and Sun 4. Call (UK) 44-223-841000 for information. -------------------------------------------------- 23) 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 X servers don't set up the default graphics context to have reasonable foreground/background colors, and your program should not assume that the server does, so this program could previously include this code to prevent the case of having the foreground and background colors the same: ... 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.) -------------------------------------------------- 24) 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.) -------------------------------------------------- 25) 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. -------------------------------------------------- 26) Can I get the background pixel/pixmap of a window using GetWindowAttributes? 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] -------------------------------------------------- 27) 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] -------------------------------------------------- 28) 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, &hints) 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). [courtesy Dave Lemke of NCD and Stuart Marks of Sun] -------------------------------------------------- 29) 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 occurs in the R3 Xm PanedWindow widget. If it is impossible to fix source, use 'xset bc' to put the X11R4 server into bug-compatibility mode. -------------------------------------------------- 30) Where can I obtain alternate language bindings to Xlib? Versions of the CLX Lisp bindings are part of the X11R3 and X11R4 core source distributions. Ada bindings were written by Mark Nelson and Stephen Hyland at SAIC for the DOD. The bindings can be found on hapo.sei.cmu.edu or on wsmr-simtel20.army.mil and are also in the Ada Software Repository (ASR). R3 bindings should be available by the end of 1/90. -- The X User's Group xug@expo.lcs.mit.edu "No, I'm a member of the X User's Group, not the Ex-User's Group." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sunflash is an electronic mail news service from Sun Microsystems, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Please address comments to John McLaughlin (sun!sunvice!johnj or johnj@sunvice.sun.COM). (305) 776-7770.