more on customizing CDE

From: Bernt Christandl <beb_at_mpe.mpg.de>
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 16:25:24 +0100

Hello managers,

here comes the next of my CDE concerning mails...

It's not a "SUMMARY", because my last mail ( CDE is so #%$#%$# )
was not really a question, but more - like this one - FYI.
My hope is, that some of you will find it worth reading...

My thanks go to
   Olle Eriksson <olle_at_cb.uu.se>
   Paul Henderson <pgh_at_unx.dec.com>
   Ian Mortimer <mortimer_at_physics.uq.edu.au>
   Serge Munhoven <munhoven_at_mema.ucl.ac.be>
   CHUCK_NOREM.ASPENTECH.COM <CHUCK_NOREM_at_aspentec.com>
   Carlos A M dos Santos <casantos_at_cpmet.ufpel.tche.br>
   Allen David Winter <winterz_at_clark.net>
who took time to send me answers, hints and/or comments on my last mail.


1. Docs on CDE
--------------

I mentioned the FAQ on CDE in my last mail and got some additional pointers:

CHUCK_NOREM.ASPENTECH.COM <CHUCK_NOREM_at_aspentec.com> wrote:

> Possibly you've seen this book. If not, you may find it useful.
>
> _Configuring CDE_ by Charles Fernandez
> published by Prentice Hall
> ISBN 0-13-102724-7

Serge Munhoven <munhoven_at_mema.ucl.ac.be> wrote:

> Here are two further bookmarks about CDE (may be they are included in the
> online documentation comming with 4.0; I don't know since I am not yet there
> eiher ... ) :
>
> Linkname: CDE Companion
> Filename:
> http://www.unix.digital.com/faqs/publications/base_doc/DOCUMENT
> ATION/HTML/AA-QTLPA-TE_html/TITLE.html
> http://www.partner.europe.digital.com/www-swdev/pages/Home/TECH
> /documents/Digital_UNIX/V4.0/AA-QTLPA-TE_html/TITLE.html
> http://www.pdc.kth.se/doc/osf/osf40/HTML/AA-QTLPA-TE_html/TITLE.html
>
>
> Linkname: Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide
> Filename:
> http://www.unix.digital.com/faqs/publications/base_doc/DOCUMENT
> ATION/HTML/UsersGuide/uguide_1.html
> http://www.partner.europe.digital.com/www-swdev/pages/Home/TECH
> /documents/Digital_UNIX/V4.0/UsersGuide/uguide_1.html
> http://www.pdc.kth.se/doc/osf/osf40/HTML/UsersGuide/uguide_1.html
>
>
> Linkname: Common Desktop Environment: Advanced User's and System
> Filename:
> http://www.unix.digital.com/faqs/publications/base_doc/DOCUMENT
> ATION/HTML/SysAdmin/sysadmin_1.html
> http://www.partner.europe.digital.com/www-swdev/pages/Home/TECH
> /documents/Digital_UNIX/V4.0/SysAdmin/sysadmin_1.html
> http://www.pdc.kth.se/doc/osf/osf40/HTML/SysAdmin/sysadmin_1.html


2. my successful tries of customizing CDE
-----------------------------------------

-> $HOME/.dt/sessions/sessionetc

   This file must be executable of course.
   If you want more than one line executed, don't forget the trailing "&"
   - like i did... :-(


-> If you do, (what is not recommended?!) and still use $HOME/.Xdefaults
   you should be able to customize CDE via its resources, e.g.:

   Paul Henderson <pgh_at_unx.dec.com> said:

> Another thing I do is use just window titles for my icons, no pixmaps.
> To do this I specify in my ~/.Xdefaults file:
>
> Dtwm*iconDecoration: label activelabel

   In my last mail i said that for me "Dtwm*iconPlacement: top left" did not
   work and argued with an error occurring with "source .Xdefaults"...

   There have been at least 2 errors on my site (which luckily i found myself),
   - and it was not the typo i did when copying the error message... -
   the first being that .Xdefaults should not be "source"d, but activated
   with "xrdb -merge .Xdefaults" - and the second being my mis-understanding
   of "top left". I confused it with "left top", which actually was, what
   i want to do...

   Now i learned at least how to make use of Dtwm*iconDecoration and
   Dtwm*iconPlacement for my personal customization...


-> Paul Henderson also mentioned that somewhere within the "CDE Advanced Users
   and System Admin Guide" is described, how to customize the "clicking-
   behaviour" - once for the application manager, twice for the applications
   therein...

   I was to lazy to look for that and try it until now... ;-)


-> the above mentioned FAQ has a way of replacing dtwm with fvwm
   (in .Xdefaults enter
    Dtsession*wmStartupCommand: /usr/local/bin/X11/fvwm
    or whereever your fvwm is located), but why then should i still use CDE?


3. open questions with customizing CDE
--------------------------------------

-> how to replace the default editor? This question Ian Mortimer asked.

   mortimer_at_physics.uq.edu.au said:

> > (Hey, Ian - mortimer_at_physics.uq.edu.au - what about a summary
> > on your "[Q] CDE editor" question???)
>
> No summary because I got no replies. We're still trying to solve
> this one ourselves. If we find a solution I'll post a summary.

-> how to replace the default mailer (dtmail) or the default clock?
   
   These seem to be similar to the above question and we, too, had no
   success with this. Also in the above mentioned CDE-FAQ this is
   a still un-answered question...

-> how to save the actual places of icons from session to session?

   Dtwm*iconPlacement is "only" able to customize the order of how icons
   are placed on the workspace, if you iconize a window.
   I could not find a way to save their actual places at logout/exit-time.

-> i still do not know a way to avoid the session-saving at logout/exit.


4. an "escalated" problem with CDE
----------------------------------

In another question to the list (du-4.0b and getlogin(2)) i described
a problem we have, which is now "escalated to" and accepted by
"engineering". Nevertheless my telefon-contact-person said that he was
not able to reproduce it... If one of you could confirm the problem,
i would be glad to here about:

With a (newly created) userid login into a cde session (du-4.0b) on an alpha (ABC),
open a terminal and in that terminal login (via telnet or rlogin) to another
du-4.0b alpha (DEF). Our alphas share the users via NIS and the homedirectories
via NFS (if that should be important...). Then on DEF open a new xterm/dxterm/
dtterm for the cde-session and quit the rlogin/telnet-session. Then push the "EXIT"
and save and quit your cde-session. Then login again to ABC, see one terminal from
ABC coming up and another one being logged in to DEF.

Then in both terminals enter "logname".

The problem is that on ABC you get the right answer "<whatever-the-username-is>"
and on DEF you get an error: invalid argument ...

We could reproduce this error with whatever combination of shell and terminal
we could think of, but the dec-man can not (he said...)

Btw, with a terminal created with "sessionetc" on DEF "logname" gives the
correct result.


With regards,

Bernt Christandl
                                                                       
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Bernt Christandl / Max Planck Institut - Extraterrestrische Physik -
- D-85740 Garching / Phone: +49/89/3299-3342 / Fax: +49/89/3299-3569 -
- email: beb_at_mpe.mpg.de -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on Wed Oct 29 1997 - 17:09:13 NZDT

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