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X Windows System Update
David A. Curry
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.
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Last modified: Saturday, 01-Nov-97 13:37:28 EST
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