[comp.windows.x] help beginner

llin@draco.unm.edu (Lynne Lin) (05/29/91)

I am trying to learn how to program in X and the only book I have is the "X 
window System: C library and Protocaol refrerence" by Gettys, Scheifler, Newman
This is my first exposure to X and there are some terms which I do not 
understand and the book does not define them, and I wonder if anyone out there
would help me.  Thanks in advance

1) what are  these attributes do : exposure, visibillity, depth, gravity? I
think I have a slightly idea of what they mean but I just don't when to use
them.

2) to display a message in a window that I just created I use XDrawImageString()
but that does not seem to work.

3) I am confusing between the two types Pixmap and GC.  Inorder to display any
graphic drawing I need to create XCreateGC  () right? Please correct me if I
am wrong.  Do I need to use the XCreatePixmap () with XCreateGC () inorder to
have a graphic window?

PS: Please mail to hsteve@hydra.unm.edu because I do not have an account, and
I have permission to use the "hsteve" account for the Summer since she is on
vacation.  Thanks again

aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk (Paul D. Crowley) (05/29/91)

In article <1991May28.211835.862@ariel.unm.edu> llin@draco.unm.edu (Lynne Lin) writes:
>
>I am trying to learn how to program in X and the only book I have is the "X 
>window System: C library and Protocaol refrerence" by Gettys, Scheifler, Newman

Not to put too fine a point on it, you're up shit creek without a paddle
in a barbed wire canoe.  It is as near impossible to learn X given only
this book as makes no difference.  If you can do it, rollerskating up
the Matterhorn will present no challenges to you. 

My advice is to beg, borrow, steal, or as a last resort buy Volume 1 of
the O'Reilly series of books on X programming, called "Xlib Programming
Manual".  Make sure you get the latest version: ie the X11R4 one.  Even
then, X will put up a damn good fight - it really is hard to imagine how
X programming could be harder.

And if you found a way of making X programming harder, you could start
on the trickier problem of making the MIT manual more obscure and harder
to read.
                                         ____
\/ o\ Paul Crowley aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk \  /
/\__/ Part straight. Part gay. All queer. \/
"I say we kill him and eat his brain."
"That's not the solution to _every_ problem, you know!" -- Rudy Rucker