[comp.windows.x] Icons under Open Windows 2.0

fwp1@CC.MsState.Edu (Frank Peters) (08/19/90)

Hello,

I'm having a problem with icons under Open Windows 2.0 on a Sun that I'm
hoping someone can help me with.  The solution may be obvious but it has
eluded me and I can't see it anywhere in the documentation I have.

Essentially the problem is that icons from non-xview applications hardly
show up on the screen.  They are black lettering on no background (or,
more exeactly on a background exactly the same color as the workspace).

What I'd like to do is to make the icon background a different color than
the workspace so I can have my little bitty squares to look at.

My first pass was to set the workspace color to the desired icon background
color and then use xsetroot to set the root to its desired color.  This
works fine by hand and does exactly what I want.

But apparently the .openwin-init file is sourced before olwm starts.  When
I put the xsetroot in there it changes the root color and the olwm changes
it to the color I want for icons.

My second pass was to arrange for the xsetroot to be delayed thus:

( sleep <n> ; xsetroot -solid <color> ) &

This waits <n> seconds and then does the xsetroot.  This works sometimes but
introduces a race (will olwm get going before the xsetroot hits?)  Setting
<n> to a large enough number to guarantee success even when there is some
load on the workstation causes a rediculously long startup time (apparently
something waits for that xsetroot to finish before letting me at my work).

Plus, this seems like an incredibly gross hack.

So, does anyone know of a better solution to the problem?  Any suggestions
would be most welcome.

Thanks in advance.

--Frank
-- 
Frank W. Peters        Systems Programmer     Computing Center & Services
fwp1@CC.MsState.Edu  Peters@MsState.Bitnet  (601)325-2942
"I can't give you brains, but I can give you a diploma." -- The Wizard of OZ