Re: [Fwd: Re: xt5250 Function Keys]

On Mon, 29 Sep 2003, Joel Cochran wrote:
> I'll assume this is all related: when I run tn5250 I have the exact same
> problems as xt5250.

xt5250 is just a simple shell script that sets a few variables, and then
runs tn5250 in a new xterm window.

> > I hope this helps you drill down and see what the problem is.   You might
> > also consider changing the "xt5250*" string at the start of your
> > .Xdefaults file to be "xterm*" and see if you can get your xterm to send
> > strings without tn5250.  This might help you to see what steps you need to
> > take to get strings sending properly.
>
> If this works, what does it tell me?

Just trying to narrow down where the problem lies.  All you've told me so
far is "it doesn't work."   Most of what's happening here is outside of
tn5250 itself...

So, if you can't get the function keys to send strings in a normal xterm,
you'll know that the problem is with your xterm.   If it does work, then
perhaps the problem is elsewhere.

One thing that I'm a little suspicious of is that xt5250 changes the title
(which would normally be "xterm") to be "xt5250."   It simply assumes that
all versions of X11 will see the "xt5250" and look up resources under that
name instead of "xterm."   I've never seen anything that disproves this,
but perhaps that's what we've stubled across with Gentoo?

if that's the case, simply changing "xt5250*" to "xterm*" at the start of
your .Xdefaults would cause tn5250 to work.    Or perhaps in Gentoo the
resource strings are associated with the executable, "tn5250"?

All of these ideas are just random stabs in the dark...   Without being
able to actually try it on your machine, it's really difficult for me to
do anything else.


> > An alternative to all of this is to try the gtk-5250 (gnome-5250) terminal
> > front-end for tn5250.   That version reads the raw keyboard scancodes
> > instead of letting xterm remap things, which may work better, who knows?
>
> This is honestly where I get confused about Linux (remember I'm fairly
> new) - does it matter that I'm running KDE?  Will Gnome still work?  I
> was very satisfied with xt5250 on RedHat and I'd like to avoid a
> terminal solution if I can.

I'll see if I can explain...  you're a programmer, so I'll try to explain
it from that perspective.

X11 comes with a set of libraries called XLib (by libraries, I'm talking
about what OS/400 calls "service programs") XLib is rather low-level
functions for working with a windowing environment, and is hard to work
with.

So, various people have created higher-level libraries for working with
X11. Designed for ease of use by the programmer, etc.  Full of really
useful features, etc, etc.

KDE and Gnome are both desktop environments developed on two different
sets of these higher-level libraries.  Gnome uses one called "GTK+" (which
is why you'll see me referring to "gtk-5250" or "the GTK version") and
KDE is built on...  errr, I forget which one... "Qt," maybe?  (It's been a
long time since I've used KDE)

At any rate, as long as the underlying libraries are installed on your
computer, you can run Gnome software on a KDE desktop, and vice-versa.
They're using different underlying libraries, but the end result is still an
X11 client, no matter which routines it goes through to generate the
graphics.

Hope that helps clarify...