Re: More questions about xfree

[Andrew Markebo <flognat at flognat dot myip dot org>]

Hmm here comes a quick intro to X-windows.. from my views.. 

You say Xwin.exe just fires up a window you can't do anything in.. yes
that is correct that is the x-server, it is just a.. 'drawing
area'.. That is exactly what Xwin.exe should do.

Xwindows is not like windows where the start-menu and so on is
included on the 'drawing area' or maybe 'scratch area' ;-)

What you see on your screen are separate apps fired up, like twm, the
application drawing borders around windows providing menu on the
desktop (also called windowmanager), xterm a window with your shell in
it.. xsetroot to set the background to something interesting.. 

Startx and startxwin.sh are scripts that both fire up the apps
mentioned above, xterms, windowmanagers.. but in different ways, for
different purposes.. you find out which is interesting for you and use
thatone :-)

/ "ted byers" <ted.byers@sympatico.ca> wrote:
| Thanks Andrew,
| 
| >
| >
| > A small copy'n'paste of the conclusion I think..
| >
| > /----------------------------
| > | I generally like what startx does better than startxwin.sh,
| > except that the
| > \----------------------------
| > Then edit startxwin.sh :-)
| >
| Edit startxwin.sh because I like startx better?  :-)

And fix all the environment around like ~/.xinitrc and so on so it
fires up what you want.. :-) 

startx fires up the x-server then looks if the user has a .xinitrc (a
shell script that should contain the commands, window-manager and so
on that he wants), if he hasn't it checks the system for default
.xinitc and so on.. 

What I mean is that you can make startxwin do the same as startx but
from one file... easier for newbies to get it started.. sort of.. 

Regarding the bash containing the x-server and so on that you want to
get rid of, isn't it just to disown the started processes..? Or
something.. :-) 

| What I was looking for was information relating what is happening that is
| different between the two scripts to the differences in behaviour that I
| saw, because I am not familiar with unix shell scripts.

hmm shellscriptprogramming.. wrong group ;-) Throw an eye at it, I
don't think it is very advanced. 

Maybe throw an eye at the startxwin.bat-file (or is it ancient, passed
out?)

        /Andy

| > | Do all these error messages mean that something in my
| > installation of xfree
| > | is broken, or is it the case that 'X' and startx do a
| > couple things that are
| > | not appropriate on NT+cygwin?
| >
| > No.
| >
| I assume you mean 'No' to both questions.

Oops sorry, yes I mean no on both questions, startx startxwin and X
are ok on nt+cygwin, but they are different aproaches and good for
different situations.. 

| programs in languages like fortran and C++ for close to twenty years - I
| just never needed shell scripts before).

Throw an eye at them, just like batch-files :-) 

        /Andy

-- 
 The eye of the beholder rests on the beauty!