Re: [LINUX5250] Re: TN5250 & X5250 issues

[James Rich <james@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 4 Dec 2004, Jack J. Woehr wrote:

> "Jack J. Woehr" wrote:
>
> >    * x5250
> >        1. Any way to get better colors out of x5250?
>
> Nemmind the colors, I've figured it out ( -bg black -fg green)

Without these switches x5250 isn't using black and green?  Those are the 
default colours and should be what is used when no switches and no other 
defaults exist.

Note that I have encountered situations where the window manager was 
setting some defaults without my knowlege.  Gnome in particular has given 
me trouble.  One way to tell is by the way xterm looks without any 
defaults set.  If it is white background with black foreground then your 
WM is probably not doing anything.  But if it is something else, then your 
WM is getting involved.

A little note on the way X applications are supposed to resolve their 
resources (defaults):

There are several levels at which resources can be defined.  Each level 
overrides the level below it.  The levels are (from lowest to highest):

1. The application default database (/usr/local/share/x5250/X5250)

2. The server resource database (created by the X server and loaded by 
xrdb as a property of the root window)

3. The XENVIRONMENT or user resource database (usually $HOME/.Xresources 
or $HOME/.Xdefaults or whatever XENVIRONMENT is set to)

4. The command line

I think the problem you and others are having is with level 2.  Something 
(like gnome) is overriding the defaults in 1, making the colours wrong. 
It should get fixed by either setting resources in .Xdefaults or putting 
them on the command line.

I'm not completely sure what to do about this.  x5250 is following the 
conventions that proper X applications should.

> I'm also passing the -geometry 132x27 switch and not getting it.

Right now the geometry switch doesn't do anything.  I should remove it 
from the help.  The window size is determined by the font you choose. 
Though it might be nice to make x5250 obey the window positioning portion 
of the geometry switch.

Even so, -geometry 132x27 would result in a window that is 132 pixels wide 
by 27 pixels high.  Probably not what you want.  The Plan (tm) with 
-geometry is to allow the user to specify the window size, and have x5250 
pick a font that will nicely fit in that window.

If you 132x27 column mode don't worry about it.  x5250 should do The Right 
Thing without you having to do anything.  Just make sure you tell the 
iSeries you have a capable device by putting the following in your 
~/.tn5250rc:

env.TERM = IBM-3477-FC

James Rich

It's not the software that's free; it's you.
        - billyskank on Groklaw