X11-STDWIN
Section: User Commands (1)
Index
Return to Main Contents
NAME
X11-STDWIN - a Standard Window System Interface, X11 version
SYNOPSIS
application
[
-display
display-name
]
[
-name
program-name
]
[
-geometry
geometry-spec
]
[
-font
font-name
]
[
-menufont
font-name
]
[
-iconic
]
[
-icongeometry
geometry-spec
]
[
-foreground
color-spec
]
[
-background
color-spec
]
[
-menuforeground
color-spec
]
[
-menubackground
color-spec
]
[
-reverse
]
[
-xrm
string
]
[
-debuglevel
number
]
[
-synchronous
]
[
option
] ...
DESCRIPTION
STDWIN
is a standard interface available for several window systems.
This man page describes the common aspects of applications written using
STDWIN when run under MIT's X Window System, Version 11.
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
Most applications (to be precise, those that use the
winitnew
call to initialize STDWIN) will accept all options shown in the
synopsis.
For most options there can also be a corresponding
resource
(option string stored in the X server or in ~/.Xdefaults).
Command line options override resources; resources override defaults
built in the application; application defaults override library defaults.
Unless otherwise stated, the resources have the same name as the command
line options (all in lower case), prefixed with ``.stdwin''.
For example, the full name of the resource corresponding to the
``-font'' option is named
program.stdwin.font.
Since most options have a standard meaning for most X applications, they
are not explained in great length here.
Options with a specific meaning for STDWIN are:
- -font font-name
-
Specifies the font to be used by default in text drawn by the
application.
Both proportional and fixed-width fonts are acceptable
(except that some old applications look nicer with a fixed-width font).
The library default is to use the X server's default (usually 8x13).
- -menufont font-name
-
Specifies the font to be used in menus and dialog boxes.
The library default is to use the same font as for normal text.
- -foreground color-spec, -background color-spec
-
Specify the colors to be used in the application's part of the window.
The defaults are black and white.
- -menuforeground color-spec, -menubackground color-spec
-
Specify the colors to be used in the menu bar, the scroll bars,
dialog boxes and for the window border (the foreground color).
By default the same values are used as for
-foreground
and
-background.
- -reverse
-
Reverses the uses of foreground and background colors.
- -debuglevel number
-
Specifies the amount of debugging output you want; the higher the
number, the more output you have to wade through.
The library default is wisely 0.
- -synchronous
-
Specifies that you want the connection with the X server to be
maintained in synchronous mode (each request immediately sent and a
reply waited for).
This is sometimes useful while debugging.
Note that synchronous mode can tremendously reduce drawing efficiency.
Synchronous mode is not set automatically when the debugging level is
nonzero, since some bugs go away when it is turned on!
This option has no corresponding resource.
SCROLL BARS
All STDWIN applications have two scroll bars (which may be inactive),
one to the left of the window and one at the bottom.
Operation and interpretation of the scroll bars is intended to be
identical to the scroll bars of applications using the X toolkit
(e.g., xterm).
Summarizing:
the left button click scrolls forward, the amount varying with
the position of the click in the bar (for the vertical bar, remember
``line to top'');
the right button similarly scrolls back (``top to line'');
the middle button moves the beginning of the position indicator
(the gray block) to the position where the button is pressed.
MENUS
All STDWIN applications display one or more menu titles in a
``menu bar'' at the top of the window.
Pressing and holding a mouse button in a menu title ``pulls down'' a
menu containing text items.
Sliding the mouse cursor over the text items
inverts (highlights) the item over which the cursor is currently;
releasing the mouse button when an item is highlighted causes the
corresponding command th be executed by the application.
Releasing the mouse button outside the menu selects no item.
Sliding the mouse horizontally over the menu titles pulls down the other
menus; at most one menu will be visible at any time.
One menu, labeled
X,
is present in all windows.
Its only item, named
Close,
is the standard way to close the window; for single-window applications,
selecting this also quits the application.
The application is free to refuse closing its window, or to ask
confirmation first, or to do whatever when this item is selected; it is
merely a hint that you would like the window to go away, not a request.
Menu items may be marked (``checked'') with a `*' in the left margin; this
an indicator that the function selected by the menu item is currently
``active''.
The check mark can be set and cleared by the application for each menu
item; the use should be apparent from the application's documentation.
Menu items may be inactive (``disabled''); such items cannot be selected
and will not be highlighted.
Disabled items are currently indicated by a `-' in the left margin.
Menu items may be selectable via a keyboard shortcut.
The existence of a keyboard shortcut is shown in the menu item by the
presence of the string
``M-c''
in the right margin, where
c
can be any character.
The M stands for ``Meta''.
Holding a ``Meta'' key (possibly labeled Alt, Command, Compose, Left or
some such name on your keyboard, but definitely not Control or Shift)
while typing a character, usually a letter, will be
equivalent to selecting the corresponding menu item with the mouse.
Shortcuts are defined by the application.
Some shortcuts are conventional in many applications:
M-Q for Quit, M-S for Save, M-O for Open.
Also M-Z for Undo, M-X for Cut, M-C for Copy and M-V for Paste
(reminiscent of the Macintosh commands).
Upper and lower case characters are equivalent, unless the application
uses the same letter in lower and upper case as shortcuts for
different menu items.
EXAMPLE
Here are some lines you could put in your resource input file:
*stdwin*font:courier12f
dpv*geometry:700x850
klok*geometry:-1+1
This sets the font for all STDWIN applications, the initial size for
dpv
and the initial position for
klok.
Note the use of `*' for separators; extra levels of names may be
inserted in the future.
DIAGNOSTICS
STDWIN
can issue complaints about various error conditions, e.g., font not found;
these are intended to be self-explanatory.
Some messages indicate STDWIN has found an inconsistency in
itself or in the X server.
These should be reported to the author if the cause isn't obvious.
SEE ALSO
The X documentation (especially the chapters on command line arguments
and resources).
STDWIN - A Standard Window System Interface, by Guido van Rossum
(CWI Report number CS-R8817, April 1988).
AUTHOR
Guido van Rossum
BUGS
I could be sued by Apple for stealing the ``look and feel'' of some
aspects of the Macintosh. :-)
The
-reverse
option doesn't affect the use of colors in dialog boxes.
Like so many other window systems, X11 limits the size of windows to
64Kx64K.
Since a STDWIN document is represented as an X11 window (scrolled inside
another X11 window), applications that create really big windows (~32K
pixels wide or high) may crash due to a server bug.
When an application does no window output for some time after a menu
item has been selected, the menu stays visible in its pulled-down state.
The conventional shortcuts for Undo, Cut and Paste aren't very mnemonic.
(But Apple never thought that was a problem.)
The standard X-STDWIN command line options are best given before all
application-specific options.
If you are running an application in the background and have
stty tostop
turned on, warnings or errors from STDWIN may cause the program to
block.
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
-
- SCROLL BARS
-
- MENUS
-
- EXAMPLE
-
- DIAGNOSTICS
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- AUTHOR
-
- BUGS
-
This document was created by
man2html,
using the manual pages.
Time: 09:06:59 GMT, February 14, 2025