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[previous article] [next article]Many of you using one of the Sun Workstations around ECN are working with the suntools window system. One of suntool's best features is the ease with which it can be customized.
A good place to start customizing your suntools environment is by setting up the environment as you'd like it to be and saving that setup for use in the future. To do this you'll need to make your own file called ".suntools". This file, which is read when you type "suntools", lists the suntool programs you want to run, their positions on the screen and features such as their state (iconic or open). Suntools has it's own ".suntools" file which it uses if you don't have one.
Creating a ".suntools" file from scratch is difficult, fortunately you don't have to. Sun provides a program called "toolplaces" which will read the locations and options given to all your windows and write them out for you. First, adjust your windows to the positions you want, create new windows if you need them and delete any windows you don't want. Then type, "toolplaces >.suntools" while in your home directory. Toolplaces will write a file which specifies which windows you have up right now and where they should be placed. Next time you start suntools, the same types of windows you have now will reappear in the same places.
The ".suntools" file can also be edited by hand. Be careful! Suntools does little checking for correctness in your ".suntools" file and will skip incorrect entries. Check the manual pages for Shelltool and the other suntools commands to see what the various options listed in the ".suntools" file do.
The Defaultseditor is another customization tool. This handy window is used to control the way suntools and the various special windows, such as textedit and mailtool respond.
To startup Defaultseditor simply select it from the main suntools menu or type "defaultsedit &". The window which will appear contains several pages of defaults categorized by the functions they control, such as SunView, Mail, Scrollbar, Text and Menu. You can select which category of defaults you wish to edit by clicking on the selector button in the top left corner of the window. It's the button consisting of two bent arrows pointing at each other's tails.
The first category (look at the top left corner of the window) is SunView. This covers the general way in which all of the suntools windows will respond. A few of the most interesting choices are:
The other categories have similar lists of defaults which you can change to suit your tastes and usage. When you're finished editing things, click on the Save button to write your choices into the various defaults files. To see the effects of your changes, exit and restart suntools.
Suntools has other nifty customization features which allows you to: change the pop-up menus, change the name strip on a window, create new icons, etc. If you are interested in these features, take a look at Chapter 15 of the Windows and Window Based Tools: Beginner's Guide.
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