You can use a number of X resources to configure the appearance of HoTMetaL.
A global application defaults file called Hm2,is provided with the HoTMetaL software. On installation, this file is placed in the directory named by the environment variable XFILESEARCHPATH: this is /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults by default. You may choose to have the file Hm2, installed in another directory: if you do so, this directory must either be named by the environment variable XAPPLRESDIR, be in the list of directories named by XFILESEARCHPATH, or be your home directory. In addition to this, each user can have their personal X resources read from a file which is loaded by the program xrdb. Any resources set in the file .Xdefaults in the user's home directory will be read by default.
Each Motif application has a class name and an application name. For a personal X resource to take effect for a particular invocation of HoTMetaL, it must start with either the class name or the application name. The class name is shared by all invocations of the same program: HoTMetaL's class name is Hm2, so all invocations of HoTMetaL have this class name. The default application name is the same as the name of the binary executable file. Therefore, unless you have changed the name of this file, hm2 is the default application name for HoTMetaL. The application name may be changed for individual invocations of HoTMetaL by calling HoTMetaL with the -name command line option. For example: changes the application name to myhm2.
X resources affect the appearance of widgets, which are graphical objects, such as file selection dialogs, lists, and buttons. Widgets may be contained within other widgets: for example, a file selection dialog contains buttons.
The format of an X resource is as follows:
Hm2*widget1*widget2* . . . widgetn*resource: value
where widget2 is contained in widget1, widget3 is contained in widget2, and so forth. The resource is some characteristic of the widget, such as color, font, width, etc. The resource applies only to the last widget in the series, and only when it occurs in the given nesting sequence.
The resource that applies to a particular widget is the one that is specified most completely for that widget. For example:
*Background: white *XmText*Background: blue
As a result of these settings, text entry boxes (XmText), will have a blue background rather than white.
Most of the widgets used in HoTMetaL can be accessed using the following HoTMetaL-specific names, or by their generic Motif names. For example, Dialog may be used interchangeably with XmForm. Note, however, the following exceptions:
Hm2*LoadDialog*XmList*Background: whiteBut not:
Hm2*LoadDialog*List*Background: white
The following lists the most useful resources that can be set for HoTMetaL widgets. This is not a complete list of all the resources: refer to your Motif documentation for more information. The resource type is given in brackets after the description.
For resources that have color values, you can use the same colors as you use with HoTMetaL's Color... command. Resources which name fonts should be set to an X standard format font name, or an alias for such a font name. The program xlsfonts will give you the names of the fonts and aliases available on your system.