The ECN No Name Newsletter is no longer being published. This is an archived issue.

X Windows System Update

Since we installed the X window system on the Sun workstations in February, we have obtained several new programs, and fixed a few bugs in some of the old ones.

Among the bugs we have fixed:

• "uwm" The bug which caused mouse events bound only in the root window to be ``stolen'' from clients in windows and icons has been fixed.
• "ximpv" (An Impress previewer for Imagen laser printers.) The byte order problems have been fixed, and the program now works properly.
• "xterm" A bug in which title-bar label changes (via \E]llabel\E) occurring in iconic windows would be trashed is now fixed. Xterm now supports the same icon-changing escape sequence that shelltool supports (\E]Iiconfile\E).

Among the new programs we have installed:

• "xbiff" A program which replaces biff (1) with a drawing of a mailbox. When new mail arrives, the flag on the mailbox rises, and letters appear in the box. Using the mouse buttons, you can view the biff messages, the ``From'' lines of the messages, and invoke mail (1).
• "xgraph" A program which accepts lists of points in x,y form and displays a graph on the screen. Up to 64 data sets can be displayed simultaneously. Xgraph also allows ``zooming in'' on sections of the graph, and supports drawing scatter plots and bar graphs. You can use xwd to take a snapshot of the graph, and then print it on the laser printer with xipr.
• "xipr" Converts the output of the xwd program, which dumps windows to files, into a format suitable for printing on Imagen laser printers.
• "xpostit" A program which implements ``Post-it'' notes by giving you small windows in which to put reminder notes to yourself. This is the first of hopefully many locally- written X tools.
• "xsaver" A screen saver which bounces an icon around on the screen. It optionally locks your workstation (requiring you to enter your password to get back in) in addition to blanking the screen.
• "xtp" A troff previewer for X windows. This program is pretty dismal, especially compared to suntroff, but it was free and easy to install. We will probably be getting something better this summer (the author of suntroff is considering porting it to X).
• "xterm, xbiff, xload, xperfmon" These programs have been installed on the Vaxes and Goulds. This permits running remote X clients via rsh (1) instead of using rlogin and so on. One use for this is to use the xbiff program even though you receive your mail on a Vax. For example, if you receive your mail on ga , but use the jupiter Sun, you could run:

                  rsh ga xbiff jupiter
  

  (See the manual pages for xbiff, and X(1) for details.) If you don't understand all the advantages of this capability, don't worry about it, you don't need it.
• "termcap" The standard ``xterm'' and ``xterms'' termcap entries have been installed. For those of you who don't want br the second page of memory (which is the cause of the cursor being placed on top of the motd when you use rlogin), use the entries ``xterm-nb'' and ``xterms-nb''. As a side effect, the non-``-nb'' entries cause your screen to be restored when you exit vi; the ``-nb'' entries work like other terminals. NOTE : the ``-nb'' entries are non-standard, and may not exist at other sites (such as PUCC and CS).

As time goes on, we will be collecting more and more X programs and installing them. Because X is in the public domain, and because it runs on several different workstations rather than just Suns, we expect the list of tools for X to grow much more rapidly than those for suntools. Watch this space for announcements of new programs as they arrive.

HTML