NAME

xdemos − X Window System demonstration

SYNOPSIS

X Demos menu item in the NeWS root menu

DESCRIPTION

The NeWS X Demos are some programs that demonstrate a small subset of the X Window System (version 10) protocol running under NeWS.  The X server is written almost entirely in the ; the code is contained in the file $NEWSHOME/lib/NeWS/X10.ps. 

The X Demos pull-right menu has two items: Run a Demo and Kill X Server.  If the X server is not running, the second menu item will have no effect. 

RUNNING DEMOS FROM THE MENU

In order to start an X demo from the NeWS menu, you must pull right from the Run a Demo menu item.  This reveals a number of demo programs: Analog Clock and Load Average. Selecting one of these starts up the corresponding X program.  If the X Server has not yet been started, it will be started automatically.  The demonstration programs do not bring up windows in the standard NeWS style; they instead conform to the standard X style, which is as follows.  First, the name of the program appears in a small window in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.  Then, a flickering rectangle or square appears at the current cursor location.  This rectangle tracks the motion of the cursor.  At this point, you can do one of three things:
 

Click the left button.  This brings up a window of default size at the current cursor location. 
 
Drag with the middle button.  If you hold down the middle button, drag the mouse, and then release the middle button, you can drag out a rubber-band rectangle that specifies the window’s location and size. 
 
Click the right button.  This brings up a window of default size at the default location. 

 
If you select Kill X Server while any X demos are active, they will be killed along with the server. 

WINDOW MANAGEMENT

In the X Window System, the only way to move or resize windows is to use a window manager program.  Unfortunately, no X window managers work under NeWS as yet.  In order to provide window management facilities to X windows running under NeWS, a special window management menu is made available in all X windows.  This menu is accessible from the right mouse button when the cursor is over an X window and it contains the following items: Move, Redisplay, Resize, and Quit.  These functions should be self-explanatory. 

RUNNING DEMOS FROM A SHELL

In order to run X demos from a shell (on the local machine or on a remote machine) one must set the DISPLAY environment variable properly.  The NeWS X server listens for connections on port 5901, which means that the DISPLAY variable should contain the string “hostname:1” so that X clients will connect to the proper location.  After DISPLAY is set properly, one can start up X demos in the normal X fashion. 

SEE ALSO

newsdemos(6)
NeWS Manual

BUGS

No byte swapping is done.  Only a small subset of X requests is implemented.  In particular, only programs like xclock and xload.  The NeWS X Server accepts only internet-domain connections.  UNIX-domain connections are not supported. Running the X demos from the menu can freeze the screen and input if you have a line in your .Xdefaults file similar to the following: .MakeWindow.Freeze:   on Turning on this option causes X clients to issue a slightly different set of requests, two of which the X demo do not handle.  The work-around is to change the line in .Xdefaults to: .MakeWindow.Freeze:   off

$NEWSHOME/lib/NeWS/demomenu.ps contains an error which causes the X demos to not run sometimes.  The work-around is to replace the following lines in $NEWSHOME/lib/NeWS/demomenu.ps: % do "setenv DISPLAY localhost:1" (DISPLAY) (localhost:1) putenv with: % do "setenv DISPLAY ‘hostname‘:1" (DISPLAY) localhostname (:1) append putenv

The following is not really a bug as much as an exposure of the NeWS/X interface. X demo windows will not respond to ‘Repaint All’ requests from the root menu, or ‘Zap All’, ‘Open All’ requests from the ‘All Windows’ menu.  The ‘Repaint All’ problem is due to a known inadequacy of the current X emulator demo package.  ’Zap All’ and other selections from the ‘All Windows’ menu have no effect since  X and NeWS exist, in essence, in two different worlds. 

TRADEMARK

is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc. 

Sun Release 4.1  —  Last change: 2 December 1987