xinit vs. startx

[<kynn at panix dot com>]

I start X in one of two ways from the CL on a Cygwin terminal: via
xinit or via startx.  (Needing the Cygwin terminal to do this is
something I'd like to avoid; see (3) below.)

When I start X using "xinit", a large window appears that covers the
entire screen; it cannot be resized but it can be minimized, and it
behaves like a desktop (it can contain other X windows applications).
At startup this "desktop" window contains a single xterm, from which I
can start new X applications that live within the boundaries of the
"desktop" window.  If I hit control-D in this xterm, both it and the
large "desktop" window disappear.

In contrast, when I start using "startx", I get the lone xterm,
without the large fixed-size "desktop" window containing it.  I can
invoke X applications from within this xterm, and these applications
live on the standard Windows desktop.

1. What exactly causes the different behavior between running xinit
and running startx?  As far as I can tell, both xinit and startx use
the directives listed in my .xinitrc file (which is identical to the
file /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc that is installed by default with cygwin).
Does startx invoke xinit or the other way around (or none of the
above)?

2. Is there any way I can (re)set the size of the desktop-like window
produced by xinit so that it does not take up the entire screen?

3. Is there any way that I can launch startx (and thereby get a
terminal from which I can launch X applications) by clicking on some
desktop/launcher icon without first needing to bring up a
(non-X-capable) Cygwin terminal?

Thanks!

kj