Re: problems with XFree

[Harold L Hunt II <huntharo at msu dot edu>]

Dennis,

Dennis Foreman wrote:
> Harold,
> My problems are not with the code base and hence the implementation, but
> rather the lack of conformity between the different implementations as to
> the arguments allowed.  If you know your UNIX history, you know that what
> hurt its widespread usage most was the inability of developers to rely upon
> consistent implementations. Different arguments, different actions,
> different shells, different everything else makes for lovely sandboxes, but
> hardly provides a basis for widely-accepted applications.
For future reference, just assume that I am an old timer.

You are completely allowed to have a problem with the difference between 
the two implementations.

GNU, Linux, XFree86, and other open-source and free-software projects 
were started partly in response to the fact that the UNIX industry had 
failed miserably at maintaining any sort of compatibility with each 
other.  One major problem with closed-source UNIX operating systems is 
that there are so many utilities in the operating system that not every 
utility gets fixed in every release.  In fact, you might be using a UNIX 
release from 2002 that contains a version of sed that hasn't been 
updated since 1990.

As I said before, if you are angry at Solaris for these discrepencies, 
you can take it up with them.  If you are angry that XFree86's xterm is 
not compatible with Solaris's xterm, then you will have to take it up 
with the xterm developers and see if you can convince them to make 
changes on your behalf.  Or, you can submit patch files to the xterm 
maintainers, which they are much more likely to accept that mere talk of 
changes.

With open-source and free-software you at least have the option of 
contributing.  Try contributing to Solaris's xterm and let us know how 
far you get.

You need to realize that Cygwin/XFree86 is only a Cygwin port of 
XFree86.  For any general questions about XFree86 (such as those related 
to xterm), *YOU HAVE TO TALK TO THE XFREE86 PROJECT*.  The XFree86 
project is located here:

http://xfree86.org/

If you have a problem with XFree86's xterm, *YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT UP WITH 
THE XTERM MAINTAINER*:

http://dickey.his.com/xterm/xterm.html

> I used to make a living designing OS's. It was fun. But the goal was always
> to remember that we had CUSTOMERS (external-paying and internal-free) who
> needed consistency from release to release and products that were compatible
> across vendors. To remember that we needed to produce programs with the same
> core set of options, clear delineation of 'vendor-specific options' and most
> of all, user-friendly support that recognized that not all users should have
> to be guru's.  If you want to stop people from using something, try making
> them feel stupid. Then no one will really care if yours is the best.
Sure.  I have written a User's Guide for the Cygwin-specific XFree86 
features.  The XFree86 project has extensive documentation for all 
XFree86 programs, libraries, extensions, etc.

I will be perfectly willing to give you support if you are willng to pay 
me the same rate for support that you are used to forking over to 
commerical UNIX vendors.  However, no amount of blather coming from 
anyone will convince me that my time is better spent in front of my 
computer than with my fiance.

This is my hobby, not my livelihood.

> PS. I apologize for sending email directly to you.  As a user of many lists,
> I did not think it necessary to look at the "to" line in my mail pgm to see
> the actual recipient. My own list programs automatically modify the header
> before sending posts to the list-members. Since I am OBVIOUSLY a MS Windows
> user, one MIGHT expect that I also use MS Outlook, which does NOT give me
> anything but "reply" and "reply to all". That doesn't make it inferior, just
> different.
Wow.

Did you miss the fact that I am writing an X Window System server for 
Microsoft Windows?  Doesn't that sort of imply that I primarily use Windows?

Microsoft Outlook?  Yup, I use that too.  I hit reply-to-all and I swap 
the addresses and remove addresses as necessary.  I do the same thing in 
Mozilla.

> PPS. My proposed "patch" is for the installation of Xfree (by setup) to
> modify the cygwin.bat file to include the Xfree86 directory in the user's
> path. Which is what I did manually. (You might include a check to see if
> it's been moved.) This adds no cost to non-Xfree users and is necessary
> anyway for those who do use Xfree.  OS/2 used to have a line in some of its
> install programs asking if the user wanted certain files modified for them
> (like config.sys).
> regards,
> D. J. Foreman, Ph. D.
> Dept of Computer Science
> Binghamton University
> website: http://WWW.CS.Binghamton.EDU/~foreman

We have at times debated whether or not to add /usr/X11R6/bin to the 
path in cygwin.bat.  I do not recall where the discussion about that 
left off.  You can search the mailing list archives and let us know. 
Then you can make the proposed change to cygwin.bat, run ``diff -U3 
cygwin.bat > cygwin.bat.diff'' and submit that patch to 
cygwin@cygwin.com for comments.

Harold