[comp.windows.x] Sun xnews and WMs and visuals

mnp@cs.brown.edu (Matthew Nicholas Pappas) (10/20/89)

In article <8910162113.AA10253@trantor.sun.com> smarks@SUN.COM writes:

   From: smarks@SUN.COM
   Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
   Date: 16 Oct 89 21:13:11 GMT
   Organization: The Internet

   | From:  mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!censor!isgtec!andrew@rutgers.edu  (Andrew)
   | Date:  13 Oct 89 19:28:57 GMT
   | Subject:  Window Managers
   | 
   | This is a question for those of you who are running a different
   | window manager on top of (actually instead of) the XNeWS 
   | postscript window manager.  I finally got my OSF/MOTIF window
   | manager to compile and run (after taking off the optimization option!)
   | but now I am having trouble "removing" the XNeWS window manager.
   | 
   | I am running a SPARC Station 1, with SunOS 4.0.3c,
   | with 1.0 OpenWindows (Beta 2) server, and am now trying to use the
   | Motif 1.0 Window manager. 

   Your first step should be to get an up-to-date version of the software,
   i.e. 1.0, not 1.0 beta2 or anything like that.  Talk to your local Sun
   contact to find out how to get a copy.  The 1.0 documentation has changed,
   so make sure to get a copy of it along with the software.

It _is_ possible to run another window manager in the Beta version of xnews.
It's probably still a good idea to get a supported version of the software,
but it isn't essential.

   Basically, the answer is to run "ps ax | grep pswm" to find the process id
   of the window manager, and then send it a TERM signal.

Sounds gross.  For example, won't the above incantation also succeed in
killing off the grep process (since it contains the string 'pswm')?  Ick.

   s'marks

   Stuart W. Marks			ARPA: smarks@eng.sun.com
   Window Systems Group		UUCP: sun!smarks
   Sun Microsystems, Inc.

I am running pre-FCS xnews, and someone long ago gave me some pointers for
effectively turning off the postscript in xnews.  This also has the effect
NEVER STARTING pswm (yay! -- doesn't even start the postscript interpreter if
i remember correctly).  I'm assuming this works in (post-FCS) 1.0 xnews, but
I have no evidence since we are still using pre-FCS.  

To run xnews, go to your home directory and say something like:
	xinit xterm -- xnews

In your home directory, create the following file (.startup.ps) with the
following contents:

	/RunX11? true def
	/XOnly? true def
	
		UserProfile begin
		    /ViewStop		/FunctionL9		def
		    /ViewAgain		/FunctionL9		def
		    /ViewProps		/FunctionL9		def
		    /ViewUndo		/FunctionL9		def
		    /ViewFront		/FunctionL9		def
		    /ViewPut		/FunctionL9		def
		    /ViewOpen		/FunctionL9		def
		    /ViewGet		/FunctionL9		def
		    /ViewFind		/FunctionL9		def
		    /ViewDelete 	/FunctionL9		def
	
		    /FocusStyle 	/CursorFocus		def
		end	%  UserProfile

You may also have to create empty files called .openwin-init and/or .user.ps,
but i have no real evidence that these files do anything, some NeWS guru just
told me to put them there.  Mine is not to reason why...

Anyway, all this has the effect of turning xnews into your standard X server,
which makes me willing to use a very non-standard X server.  Oh yeah, and if
you're sick of the static visual being the default visual, do

	'setenv USE_MIT_VISUALS t'

before running the xnews server, and the psuedocolor visual will become the
default visual.  This makes (for example) rubber-banding window managers, and
hardheaded image-display programs happy.

Good luck,
-matt
_________________________________________________________________________
   uunet ! brunix ! mnp                           Matthew Nicholas Pappas
or mnp @ {cs.brown.edu, browncs.bitnet }                 Brown University