Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!torn!hermes.acs.ryerson.ca!elf From: elf@ee.ryerson.ca (Luis Fernandes) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x.apps Subject: FAQ: comp.windows.x.apps Frequently Asked Questions Date: 18 Aug 1995 12:23:36 GMT Organization: Ryerson Polytechnic University Lines: 1361 Expires: 15 September 1995 23:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <4120o8$ukp@hermes.acs.ryerson.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: gemini.ee.ryerson.ca Keywords: Frequently Asked Questions FAQ Applications Clients X Archive-name: xapps-faq Maintainer: elf@ee.ryerson.ca (luis fernandes) Hyper-FAQ: http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~elf/xapps/ The ASCII-text version of this FAQ is available for ftp at: ftp://ftp.x.org:/contrib/faqs/xapps-faq.Z The (somewhat deprecated version of the) hyper-FAQ is available, in its entirety (60+ Kbytes), as one single document (meant for hardcopy), at: http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~elf/xapps/thefaq.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This past July, this FAQ celebrated its first anniversary. In that lifetime, in whatever incarnation it happened to be in at the time, it has been visited 6089 times. I hope it continues to be a useful resource. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- o NEW ENTRIES: * IV: xwpe + snapshot (thanks to Karel De Bruyne) (Aug 2 1995) o UPDATED ENTRIES : * Tcl/Tk: URL for Sun & 1995 Tcl/Tk Workshop Report (Aug 2 1995) * II: URL for Bell Labs (Aug 2 1995) * II: xemacs snapshot (Aug 2 1995) o MISC: * IV, VI: Tcl/Tk URL corrected (Aug 2 1995) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the comp.windows.x.apps FAQ. Herein lie frequently asked questions (and the answers) that are posted to comp.windows.x.apps , a group dedicated to the discussion of applications that run under the X Window System. Where available, snapshots, indicated by: +Snapshot+ are provided, via the Web, for your viewing pleasure. Submissions of snapshots, for those apps lacking them, would be appreciated. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- INDEX I. Where do I get X programs? 1 The X Consortium's contrib ftp site 2 X11R6 distribution (standard X & contrib manifest) 3 comp.sources.x newsgroup and archives II. Does anyone know of any good editors other than xedit? 1 GNU Emacs 2 XEmacs (previously known as Lucid Emacs) 3 aXe 4 xcoral 5 asedit 6 Misc. Tcl/Tk editors 7 sam 8 vile/xvile 9 NEdit 10 NEW! ce (time-limited binaries; unconditional Linux binary) III. Does anyone have any suggestions for X-based news-readers? 1 xrn 2 mxrn (Motif) 3 xvnews (OpenLook) 4 GNUS (with Emacs) 5 Netscape (Web-browser) 6 nn-tk (tcl/tk) 7 tknews (tcl/tk) 8 arTCLs (tcl/tk) IV. Any good debuggers (or front-ends) out there? 1 xxgdb, xdbx (gdb/dbx front-ends) 2 ups 3 tgdb (shareware, with source; tcl/tk) 4 ddd (Motif front-end to gdb/dbx) 5 NEW! xwpe V. Can anyone suggest any good calendar programs? 1 xcal 2 xkal 3 ical (tcl/tk) 4 calentool (OpenLook) 5 k-lenders 6 plan (Motif) 7 NEW! xdiary (Motif) VI. Are there any (CAD-type) drawing programs for X? 1 xfig 2 tgif 3 picasso (tcl/tk) VII. Any virtual window managers out there? 1 fvwm (mwm-like (workspaces & virtual desktop)) 2 piewm (twm based) 3 tvtwm (twm based) 4 vtwm (twm based) 5 olvwm (OpenLook) 6 ctwm (twm based (workspaces)) IIX. Project Management Software 1 comp.software-eng FAQ IX. Where can I find icon libraries? 1 xpm-3 distribution 2 Anthony's X Icon Library 3 Really Humungous Library of Icons 4 Tony's Icon Collection 5 Erin's Icon Collection 6 Building Blocks and Icons 7 Graphic Element Samples 8 Yahoo's Archive X. Are there any editors/paint-programs for xpm/GIF/TIFF/etc. image-formats? 1 xpaint 2 pixmap XI. Are there any apps that can display files in parallel, highlighting (in color) the differences between them? 1 ediff (for emacs or xemacs) 2 mgdiff (Motif) 3 tkdiff (tcl/tk) XII. How do I make a screen-dump of my window and/or print it out? 1 xv (3.x is shareware, with source) XIII. Are there any mail-readers for X? 1 xmail 2 xmh 3 exmh (tcl/tk) 4 ml (Motif) Appendix Tcl/Tk Acknowledgments ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This FAQ is Copyright 1994, 1995 by Luis Fernandes. Non-commercial distribution and reproduction is permitted on the condition that this copyright message appear in its entirety. Version 1 Release 1 of this FAQ, was compiled entirely from within GNU Emacs 19.23 (on a lazy Sunday afternoon, sometime in July '94 (via a VT100-terminal dialup yet!)). GNUS was used to access relevant USENET FAQ's in news.answers and the ange-ftp and crypt++ packages made it possible to visit the README's of the various packages mentioned, at ftp sites around the world, after searching for them with archie (from within emacs, of course). The hyper-FAQ (Release 1.8) was generated from the original text-version using Emacs' massively useful macro-facility (and thus the conversion was painlessly automated) and the html-mode package. The plain-text version of this FAQ is now generated from the hyper-FAQ, with the html-to-ascii perl-script written by James R. Davis. The text version of this FAQ is posted to comp.windows.x.apps and uploaded to the archive on or about the 15th of every month; the hyper-FAQ will always be the most up-to-date version. Additions, corrections, criticisms, marriage proposals and other suggestions are welcome and encouraged (especially marriage proposals); please email them to the maintainer of this FAQ: < elf@ee.ryerson.ca >. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Where do I get X programs? 1 X Consortium's contrib ftp site X clients (as the applications are normally referred to) are available for ftp from many sites; the most popular of these being the X Consortium's contrib archive at ftp.x.org (198.112.44.100). Note that there is a limit of 90 anonymous-ftp users on ftp.x.org, so try a mirror (below) . The contrib directory, organized into sub-directories by category; e.g. editors/, audio/, games/, fonts/, etc., archives clients that have been tested with X11R6. With the release of R6, the H U G E collection of clients in R5contrib is considered "old" (although they will still work with R4 & R5 servers). The file 0ftpxorg.dir , maintained by Daniel S. Lewart, is a concerted attempt at organizing the plethora of packages available. It contains descriptions of the more popular (and sometimes obscure) packages. New releases and updates to contributed packages will be placed in /contrib/ ; /R5contrib/ will eventually be deleted. If you cannot connect to ftp.x.org, you may wish to try a mirror : * ftp.cs.umn.edu:/packages/X11 * crl.dec.com/pub/X11/contrib * ftp.funet.fi/:pub/X11/contrib * freebsd.cdrom.com/pub/X11R6 (un-tarred source code) 2 X11R6 distribution The X11R6 distribution, available for ftp, also contains clients written by the X Consortium, in: ftp.x.org:/pub/R6untarred/xc/programs and clients contributed by others, in: ftp.x.org:/pub/R6untarred/contrib/programs . The complete R6 distribution, including contibuted clients, is also available on CD-ROM. Information on purchasing the CD-ROM is available in the file: ftp.x.org:/GettingR6 3 comp.sources.x newsgroup and archives New clients are often posted to the USENET group comp.sources.x . These clients are then archived and available for anonyomous ftp, at various sites. * In North America: * usc.edu:/archive/usenet/sources/comp.sources.x/ * halcyon.com:/dec/.0/usenet/comp.sources.x/ * calypso-2.oit.unc.edu:/pub/archives/comp.sources.x/ * sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/archives/comp.sources.x/ * ftp.wustl.edu:/usenet/comp.sources.x/ * In Europe: * ftp.eu.net:/windows/X/comp.sources.x/ * ftp.sunet.se:/pub/usenet/comp.sources.x/ * unix.hensa.ac.uk:/pub/uunet/usenet/comp.sources.x/ * In Australia: * plaza.aarnet.edu.au:/usenet/comp.sources.x/ The archive sites usually have an index file that briefly lists the contents of each volume in the archives. New packages or patches and bug-fixes are announced in comp.windows.x.announce ; it would be worth your while to subscribe to this newsgroup. (Op-Ed: If at all possible, try not to ftp large packages during prime-time (08:00 - 18:00 ftp-site local-time) so as not to load-down the computing resources at the sites that graciously make these facilities available. Also, try to use a ftp-server that is geographically near your own site. Now, I don't expect everyone to stay-up past their bed-time just to ftp a package in the middle of the night. I have some nifty shell-scripts to perform unattended ftp'ing using cron(1). If anyone wants a copy of these scripts, mail me a note and I will mail them off to you) or you can download them directly from here (21K shar-file). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- II. Does anyone know of any good X-based editors other than xedit? (Religious wars have been fought on this extremely sensitive topic; flames about the merits of *your* favourite editor will be summarily ignored, though submissions of additional editors will be gladly accepted.) 1 +Snapshot+ GNU Emacs, an extensible, customizable real-time display editor, is The One True Editor. It was developed and is maintained by Richard Stallman. It offers true Lisp--smoothly integrated into the editor--for writing extensions, and provides an interface to the X Window System (it works equally well on a dumb-terminal (VT100, etc.)). In addition to its powerful native command set, extensions which emulate other popular editors (vi, EDT (DEC's VMS editor) Wordstar, and Gosling (aka Unipress) Emacs) are distributed. An extermely short list of features making emacs a full computing-support environment include: pull-down menus, multiple fonts, multiple windows with multiple views into the same file, on-the-fly syntax highliting for various languages including C. Users seeking help or guidance with using or installing Emacs can post queries (after consulting the GNU Emacs FAQ (please!)) to gnu.emacs.help (a mailing-list gatewayed to USENET), comp.emacs.xemacs and comp.emacs . ( alt.religion.emacs offers support for the truly devout seeking enlightenment.) User contributed additions in the form of LISP packages (games (tetris), PIM's, databases, calendars, mailers, etc.) are available from the definitive LISP archive: archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/ GNU Emacs (or sometimes, a less feature-laden derivative) is available for ever system on this earth; the latest version of GNU Emacs is 19.29. What's GNU? GNU's Not Unix! (Note that various media, containing all the sources (of course) and pre-compiled binaries (all major platforms) of all their applications (emacs, gcc, gdb, gnuchess, etc.) and utilities (groff, flex, gmake, etc.) in addition to the latest release of X), may be ordered from the Free Software Foundation (for more information, send email to gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu or refer to the order form (ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/ORDERS)). The latest version of Emacs is available for ftp at the following sites, which also archive all the GNU utilities: * In North America: * wuarchive.wustl.edu:/systems/gnu * ftp.kpc.com:/pub/mirror/gnu * ftp.digex.net:/pub/gnu * jaguar.utah.edu:/gnustuff * mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu:/pub/gnu * col.hp.com:/mirrors/gnu * ftp.cs.columbia.edu:/archives/gnu/prep * vixen.cso.uiuc.edu:/gnu * gatekeeper.dec.com:/pub/GNU * ftp.uu.net:/systems/gnu * ftp.cs.ubc.ca:/mirror2/gnu * ftp.hawaii.edu:/mirrors/gnu * In Asia: * ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp:/ftpsync/prep * utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:/ftpsync/prep * cair.kaist.ac.kr:/pub/gnu * ftp.nectec.or.th:/pub/mirrors/gnu * In Australia: * archie.au:/gnu (archie.oz or archie.oz.au for ACSnet * In Africa: * ftp.sun.ac.za:/pub/gnu * In the Middle-East: * ftp.technion.ac.il:/pub/unsupported/gnu * In Europe: * irisa.irisa.fr:/pub/gnu * ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de:/pub/gnu * ftp.win.tue.nl:/pub/gnu * ftp.funet.fiftp.win.tue.nl:/pub/gnu * ftp.sunet.se:/pub/gnu * ftp.univ-lyon1.fr:/pub/gnu * ftp.mcc.ac.uk:/pub/uunet/systems/gnu * unix.hensa.ac.uk:/pub/uunet/systems/gnu * ftp.denet.dk:/gnu * src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/gnu * ftp.eunet.ch:/mirror/gnu * nic.switch.ch:/mirror/gnu * ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de:/pub/unix/gnu * ftp.stacken.kth.se:/pub/unix/gnu * isy.liu.se:/pub/unix/gnu * ftp.luth.se/pub/unix/gnu * archive.eu.net:/pub/unix/gnu * In South America: * ftp.unicamp.br:/pub/gnu William Smith has made the source and binaries for GNU EMACS version 19.29 available via ftp on: das.wang.com:/ftp/wjs/gnu/emacs Binaries (built with R5 Athena Widgets) are avilable for: 1 IBM RS6000 3.2.0-3.2.5 with X11R4 or X11R5; 2 HP-UX 9.00-9.04 series 800 with X11R5; 3 Solaris 2.3 with X11R5; 4 SCO 3.2.4.0 (ODT 2.0) - 3.2.4.2 (ODT 3.0) with X11R5; and 5 MSDOG (oemacs 4.1 GNU Emacs 19.19). 2 +Snapshot+ XEmacs 19.12 , formerly Lucid Emacs 19.10, is derived from GNU Emacs version 19. Pre-compiled binaries are available for most popular platforms; the reader is encouraged to check-out the XEmacs home-page for details about the specific files to retrive. Some of its popular features include: * TTY (dumb terminal) support (includes face support); * built-in toolbar and support to many packages; * the ability to embed pixmaps (glyphs) of arbitrary size in a buffer; * use of variable width fonts; * on a machine with audio hardware, XEmacs can play sound files instead of the default X beep; * embedding an X window in a buffer in the same way as a pixmap; external programs (such as GhostScript, or an MPEG player) can then render arbitrary graphics on that window. The latest version is available for ftp from the canonical distribution point: cs.uiuc.edu:/pub/xemacs Since cs.uiuc.edu has a 20-user limit on ftp connections, you are advised to get it from one of the following mirror sites: * self.stanford.edu:/pub/xemacs/ * ftp.uu.net:/systems/gnu/xemacs/ * ftp.ai.mit.edu:/pub/xemacs/ * liasun3.epfl.ch:/pub/gnu/xemacs/ * ftp.cenatls.cena.dgac.fr:/pub/Emacs/xemacs/ * ftp.germany.eu.net:/pub/packages/lucid-emacs/ * ftp.th-darmstadt.de:/pub/editors/xemacs/ * audrey.levels.unisa.edu.au:/xemacs/ * ftp.sunet.se:/pub/gnu/lucid/lemacs/ * ftp.center.osaka-u.ac.jp:/xemacs/ * ftp.technion.ac.il:/pub/unsupported/gnu/xemacs/ 3 aXe (an X editor) was developed by Jim Wight. It is a simple to use text editor that represents a significant improvement over xedit. Built around the Athena Text Widget it features, amongst other things: * multiple windows and multiple buffers; * menu interface with configurable menus; * parenthesis matching, keyboard macros and regexp searching; * restricted or unlimited undo; * ability to change font; * hypertext on-line help. The latest version of aXe, 6.1.2, is avaliable for ftp from: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/editors/ aXe-6.1.2.tar.Z 4 +Snapshot+ xcoral, developed by Lionel Fournigault, Bruno Pages and Dominique Leveque is a multi-window text editor. It features: * a built-in browser to navigate through C functions and C++ classes, methods and files; * a built-in ANSI C interpreter to dynamically extend user functions, key bindings, modes etc; * variable-width fonts and colour syntax hilighting; * menus, scrollbars, buttons, kill-buffers, search, macros, undo regions, and a online manual; * commands are accessible from either menus or keyboard; * RCS interface and ability to run Unix commands (make, grep, etc.). The latest version of xcoral, 2.4, is available for ftp at: ftp.inria.fr:/X/contrib-R5/clients/xcoral-2.4.tar.Z bode.ee.ualberta.ca:/pub/unix/HPUX/hpux9/Editors/ dutiws.twi.tudelft.nl:/pub/other_sites/dutepp0/Unix/Editors/ ftp.csis.dit.csiro.au:/pub/SEG/jon/ lune.csc.liv.ac.uk:/hpux9/Editors/ 5 asedit, developed by Andrzej Stochniolis, is a text editor built around the Motif text widget. It includes support for the following languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Polish, Portuguese and Swedish. All commands and messages are localized for each language; the context sensitive, hypertext on-line help, however, is only available in English. It features: * multiple editing windows with "point and click" interface; * drag and drop support (Motif 1.2 and above); * multiple undo and redo of edits; * user customizable commands and filters; * support for emacs keyboard bindings. Version 1.3 of asedit (International Free Release) is available for ftp from: ftp.x.org:/contrib/editors/asedit-1.3.tar.Z src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/packages/X11-contrib/editors/asedit-1.3.tar.Z 6 Refer to part 4 of the comp.lang.tcl FAQ for an extensive list of editors that have been written with Tcl/Tk. The latest version of the FAQ is always available for ftp from: ftp.aud.alcatel.com:/tcl/docs/tcl-faq.part04.gz 7 sam, developed by Rob Pike, is a hybrid command-oriented/GUI multi- file editor for AT&T's Plan 9, that has been ported to X. sam was developed as an editor for use by programmers, and tries to join the styles of the Unix text editor ed(1) with that of interactive cut and paste editors by providing a comfortable mouse-driven interface to a program with a solid command-language driven by regular expressions. sam extends the regular expression paradigm beyond line-oriented ASCII files by introducing "structural regular expressions", which can partition a file into arbitrary textual units. sam supports the UTF-8 file-format-- an 8-bit encoding of the 16 bit Unicode character set which has nice properties like ASCII being preserved. This feature allows sam to simultaneously represent multiple languages in a single file. Although full Unicode support is unavailable, sam's flexibility with international text is still beyond that of most text editors. The latest version of sam is available for ftp from: research.att.com:/dist/sam 8 +Snapshot+ vile/xvile, (VI Like Emacs), developed by Paul Fox, is a vi workalike put together from Micro-Emacs. It works in an xterm (vile) and as a true X client (xvile). vile features: * multi-file editing and viewing (split-screen windows); * keyboard macros ( :map, :map!, :abbr ); * infinite undo; * rectangular operations; * man-page and C syntax highlighting; * built-in macro language; * "next error" cursor positioning after compilation; * vi operations on selected regions. xvile features all the features of vile and additionally: * scrollbars and more complete mouse integration; * on-the-fly font change; * selection highlighting. vile and xvile build (for for VAX (VMS & alpha)) from the same package; the latest version, 5.2, is available for ftp at: id.wing.net:/pub/pgf/vile There's also a pre-built DOS executable (vile52b.zip) available (requires a 386 or better). The author maintains a mailing list; if you wish to be added to the list, send email to . 9 NEdit , developed by Mark Edel, is a GUI editor for X/Motif-based Unix and VMS systems. Nedit features: * multi-window, mouse based editing; * multi-level undo; * comprehensive on-line help; * auto-indent and block indentation adjustment; * parenthesis flashing and matching; * finding lines directly from compiler error output; * Unix ctags support. Nedit has been tested on Silicon Graphics, Sun (Solaris & SunOS), HP, OSF/1, DEC Ultrix, IBM AIX, and VMS systems. The latest version, 3.1, is available for ftp at: ftp.fnal.gov:/pub/nedit/v3_1_1/nedit_source.tar.Z ftp.x.org:/contrib/editors/nedit/nedit_source.tar.Z Pre-built binaries for the mentioned architectures are available in: ftp.fnal.gov:/pub/nedit/v3_1_1 10 ce, developed by Enabling Technologies Group, is a full-screen, text editor that was originally developed for users migrating from Apollo's Domain environment and was modelled after the Display Manager editor. It features: * multiple edit sessions; * rectangular cut & paste; * global bounded search and replace; * coordinated mouse and text cursor control; * command macros; * unlimited UNDO & REDO; * customized keyboard mapping; * automatic file backup and save. ce is available for IBM AIX, Hewlett-Packard HP-UX, Sun SunOS & Solaris, HP Apollo Domain/OS, DEC OSF/1 & Ultrix, SGI IRIX, and Linux. Evaluation binaries, that normally expire 30-60 days after downloading (see the README file for more details), are available for various platforms, at: ftp://ftp.std.com/ftp/vendors/ETG/ Note: The Linux version of ce has no expiration. It is a FREE copy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Last modified: Sun Jun 25 11:42:46 EDT 1995 III. Does anyone have any suggestions for X-based news-readers? 1 +Snapshot+ +Snapshot+ xrn (not threaded) is a NNTP-based newsreader, developed by Ellen M. Sentovich & Rick L. Spickelmier (now maintained by Jonathan I. Kamens), is based on rn (a termcap-based news-reader written by the reverend Larry Wall); it is popular with novice users and looks rather elegant when compiled with the 3D Athena Widgets developed by formidable Kaleb Keithley . The latest version 7.03, is available for ftp from: ftp://ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/xrn/xrn-7.02.tgz ftp://remote-access.cam.ov.com:/pub/xrn/xrn.tgz A mailing-list dedicated to announcements of new releases and bugs can be subscribed to by sending mail to . 2 mxrn (not threaded) Motif-based NNTP news reader that has had part of the functionality of `rn' added since a number of users are `rn' users. Much of the `rn' functionality that mxrn currently has was not in the original plan; e.g. kill-files. The latest version is 6.18, but 6.17 seems to be the only one widely available for ftp at the following sites: geocub.greco-prog.fr:/pub/X11/mxrn.tar.Z sun.soe.clarkson.edu:/pub/src/mxrn/ 3 +Snapshot+ xvnews (not threaded) is a simple, intuitive Open-LOOK compliant NNTP-based newsreader that uses the XView libraries. The latest release, 2.3, is available for ftp from: ftp.twi.tudelft.nl:/pub/news/xvnews-2.3.tar.gz ftp.uu.net:/networking/news/readers/xvnews/xvnews-2.3.tar.gz. 4 +Snapshot+ GNUS (threaded) if you have Emacs 19.x installed (above) , you can use GNUS 4.1, developed by Masanobu Umeda, from within Emacs. It uses NNTP to communicate with the news-server and is part of the standard emacs distribution as of emacs 19.x. An updated version of GNUS, released with Emacs 19.27 supports pull-down menus containing common newsreader functions. 5 Netscape is a Web-browser, developed by Mosaic Communications (now called something else entirely and mostly consisting of the developers of the popular NCSA Xmosaic Web-browser), that has a threaded news-reader built-in. Netscape is available from the Mosaic Comm. home-page at: http://www.mcom.com or via ftp at: ftp://ftp.mcom.com . 6 +Snapshot+ nn-tk, developed by Toivo Pedaste, is based on the NN newsreader (NN commands should still work). nn-tk provides a GUI interface with command menus and buttons, the use of the mouse to select articles, a scrolling panel for displaying articles and group selection using either of scrolling panel or cascading menus. Support for MIME messages if EXMH is installed. The latest version is available for ftp from: ftp.uwa.edu.au:/pub/nn/contrib/nn-tk.beta.10.tar.Z 7 tknews, is a Tcl/Tk-based news reader. Available for anonymous ftp from: ftp.aud.alcatel.com:/tcl/code/tknews.1.2b.tar.gz 8 arTCLs is a Tcl/Tk-based news reader. Available for anonymous ftp from: ftp.aud.alcatel.com:/tcl/code/artcls.tar.gz ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. Any good debuggers (or debugger front-ends) out there? 1 An excellent C source-level debugger is gdb 4.13, the GNU debugger. gdb may either be used as a stand-alone debugger or nicely integrated, from within Emacs itself. It can be found at any anonymous ftp GNU archive, see the sites for GNU Emacs (above) . +Snapshot+ xxgdb is an X front-end to the gdb debugger. Some people prefer using gdb through this front-end rather than via the command-line. xdbx is an X front-end to the the popular dbx(1) debugger; xxgdb, xdbx, etc. are available for ftp from: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/utilities/xxgdb-1.11.tar.gz ftp://bash.cc.keio.ac.jp/pub/mirror/X11-contrib/R5/xxgdb.108.tar.gz colonsay.dcs.ed.ac.uk:/export/X11R5/Misc-contrib/xdbx colonsay.dcs.ed.ac.uk:/export/X11R5/Misc-contrib/mxgdb 2 +Snapshot+ ups is another source-level C debugger, developed by Mark Russell, that runs either under X or Sunview (which is rather irrelevant now). It also comes with its own theme song! Ups includes a C interpreter which allows you to add fragments of code simply by editing them into the source window (the source file itself is not modified). This lets you add debugging printf calls without recompiling, relinking (or even restarting) the target program. ups is available for ftp from: ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/ups-2.45.2.tar.Z The theme-song is available from: ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/ups-song.au 3 tgdb is a Tcl/Tk -based GUI front-end to the gdb debugger with similarities to commercial debuggers such as Borland's "Turbo debugger" or MicroSoft's "CodeView". Some of its features include: * setting and deleting breakpoints, listing source code, displaying variables; * direct command line interface to gdb, including command line completion, and command history; * windows, which display the CPU registers, memory, auto-display (watch) variables and expressions, the current stack frames, etc.; * an assembly dump window, which allows the display of machine instructions, scrolling through the application's code and debugging at the assembler level. The latest version, 1.1, is available for ftp from: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/debuggers/tgdb-1.1.src.tgz Pre-built binaries are available from: ftp://ftp.aud.alcatel.com/tcl/code/tgdb-1.1.src.tgz 4 +Snapshot+ ddd , developed by the DDD Development Team, is a Motif user interface to gdb and dbx which, features: * data structures are displayed graphically; * debugging of programs written in C, C++, Pascal, or Modula-2; * hypertext source navigation and lookup; * gdb/dbx command-line interface; * on-line context-sensitive help; * debugging on remote host. The latest version, 1.2, is available for ftp from: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/utilities/ddd-1.2.tar.gz Pre-compiled binaries (for Sun, Linux, etc.) are available for ftp from: ftp://ftp.ips.cs.tu-bs.de/pub/local/softech/ddd/bin/ Note: a C++ compiler (e.g. g++) is required to compile ddd 5 NEW! +Snapshot+ xwpe, developed by Fred Kruse, is a programming environment similar to the Borland C++ or Turbo Pascal IDE; the difference being that, unlike the Borland IDE, different compilers and linkers may be invoked. It features, among other things: * jumping to compilation errors directly from compilation errors; * built-in editor with pull-down menu, search and replace function (including regular expressions) and a file-manager, and "project-file" support; * running the program and debugger from within the Programming Environment and setting break-points; * viewing variables within a Watch Window. xwpe can also be used as a simple editor (when run as 'xwe') without the programming environment, and may be run under vt100 terminals as 'we'. The latest version, 1.4.2, is available for ftp at: ftp://softdis.rrzn.uni-hannover.de/pub/systems/unix/xwpe/xwpe-1.4.2.tar.Z ----------------------------------------------------------------------- V. Can anyone suggest any good calendar programs? There are several popular calendar packages with more features than the standard calendar client xcalendar. 1 +Snapshot+ xcal, written by Peter Collinson, is an interactive calendar program, meant as a companion to the xclock program. It features: * "today"'s appointments inspector; * calendar file for today and seven daily regular commitments; * memos. 2 +Snapshot+ xkal, developed by George Ferguson, is a graphical appointment calendar that allows you to maintain many types of reminders (system, personal (with colour-coded criticality levels)), displays them in several different formats, and allows you to add and edit them. Silent and non-graphic modes are provided to allow xkal to be used to check for appointments without interaction. The latest version, 1.20, is available at: ftp://ftp.uni-trier.de/pub/unix/X11/R5/contrib/clients/xkal/xkal-1.20.tar.Z ftp://ftp.physik.uni-muenchen.de/a/tum3.leo.org/archive/isar/.mntpts/tum.info-pub3/pub/comp/X11/contrib/clients/xkal/xkal-1.20.tar.Z 3 +Snapshot+ ical , developed by Sanjay Ghemawat, is a calendar manager featuring: * appointments or notices can be added or deleted and can be made to repeat in various ways; * post reminders for upcoming appointments, print and list item occurrences; * share calendars amongst different users. Release 1.9 of ical is designed to work with Tcl7.0/Tk3.3 or later. If you are using older versions of Tcl/Tk, you will need to upgrade. See the Appendix , for information about obtaining Tcl/Tk. The latest version of ical can be ftp'd from: ftp.aud.alcatel.com:/tcl/code/ical-1.9.tar.gz ftp.lcs.mit.edu:/pub/sanjay/common/ical-1.9.tar.Z 4 +Snapshot+ calentool, developed by Bill Randle, is a day/week/month/year- at-glance tool. It also features recurring appointments (e.g every Monday or every 1st & 3rd Tuesday), as well as a reminder of future appointments. calentool also permits other user's schedules to be accessed and also provides interesting information about the sun and moon. The interface uses XView (2.X or 3.X) to present an Open Look style user interface (including the Help key!). The latest version of calentool, 2.3X, is available for ftp from: ftp.x.org:/contrib/office/calentool-2.3.tar.gz 5 k-lendars, developed by Jean-Michel Leon, is a multi-user/multi-calendar diary with a Motif interface. Multi-user functionality, is optional and k-lendars may be used in single-user mode with one or more calendars. Requires procmail, slocal , etc. for multi-user communications. The latest version, 1.2, is available for ftp at: ftp://avahi.inria.fr:/pub/k-lendars-1.2.tar.gz ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/k-lendars-1.2.tar.gz 6 plan, developed by Thomas Driemeyer, is a Motif-based calendar and group scheduler application. The latest version, is available for ftp at: ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/unix/graphics/plan 7 NEW!... +Snapshot+ XDiary, developed by Roger Larsson, is a personal organizer that combines the functions of a desktop calendar, an appointment book and an alarm clock; it can also be used as a group calendar to plan meetings, distribute information to specific groups etc. It features: * A calendar with a month view; * a day view where entries can be defined, moved, changed and removed; * an appointment editor for entering appointments, making notes and defining alarms; * the ability to print selected parts of the diary on any ASCII or PostScript printer; * an access control window to allow people access to your calendar(s); * various tools to write scripts that access the XDiary calendars. The latest version, 3.0 is available for ftp at: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/office/xmdiary-3.0.tar.gz ----------------------------------------------------------------------- VI. Are there any (CAD) drawing programs for X? 1 +Snapshot+ xfig (Facility for Interactive Generation of figures), originally written by Supoj Sutanthavibul, is a menu-driven drawing program that may be used to draw and manipulate objects interactively in an X window. It comes with a translator package (transfig, also available at ftp.x.org) that allows xfig drawings to be converted to sundry other formats including LaTeX, PostScript, PiCTeX, etc. xfig can also import encapsulated PostScript files that can be annotated. xfig features primitive objects: circles, ellipses, arcs, etc. that may be grouped into complex objects and scaled, rotated, and manipulated in various ways. xfig is now maintained by Brian V. Smith (he certainly answers all the queries posted); the latest version, 3.1.3, can be ftp'd from: ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/drawing_tools/xfig/ You also need to get the TransFig package which contains the post-processor needed by xfig to convert fig files to one of several output formats. The TransFig package is in: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications/drawing_tools/transfig/ 2 tgif , developed by William Chia-Wei Cheng, also features primitive objects: circles, ellipses, arcs, etc. that may be grouped into complex objects and scaled, rotated, and manipulated in various ways. It also supports "building-block" objects that can be made part of a library of objects which are stored as Prolog code. tgif can also generate PostScript, and xbm (x-bitmap files) compatible output. tgif also supports the retrieval of tgif (obj and sym) files from HTTP servers. Hypertext jumps are supported using the old tgif teleporting or traveling mechanism. The latest version, 2.16 pl.8, is available for ftp from: ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/tgif/tgif-2.16-p8.tar.Z ftp://cs.ucla.edu:/pub/tgif/tgif-2.16-p8.tar.Z 3 picasso, developed by Frank Mangin, is an interactive drawing tool that implements interactive image rescaling, rotation, and color control. It features: * greyscale image (PPM, GIF, Pict, XPM) and Postscript object management; * LaTeX object management and creation (picasso can generate a latex picture mixing postscript drawing and latex objects. The picture is resizable at include time using the \epsfsize facility.) The latest version, 3.8 is available for ftp from: ftp://ftp.aud.alcatel.com/tcl/code/picasso3.8.tar.gz picasso requires that the following packages be installed: * tcl7.1, tk3.4 and tclX7.1a or later (refer to the appendix for details); * Jef Poskanzer's PbmPlus package (available for ftp from: ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/pbmplus10dec91.tar.Z). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- VII. Any virtual window managers out there? The "Virtual Desktop" feature of these window managers effectively makes your monitor, a window onto a screen that is larger than the physical limits of the monitor. 1 fvwm , developed by Robert Nation, seems to be the most ubiquitous of the virtual window-managers being used in recent memory (especially in the Linux community). It borrows heavily from Tom LaStrange's famous twm window manager. (Actually, any self-respecting window-manager will borrow from twm since it was the first ICCCM-compliant window-manager to be written. It should also be noted that Tom LaStrange also wrote the first virtual window-manager (swm) for Solbourne Corp. (is this guy brilliant or what?)) fvwm is a derivative of twm, redesigned to minimize memory consumption, provide a 3-D look (indistinguishable from Motif's mwm) and provide a simple virtual desktop. The latest version of fvwm are available for ftp in: ftp://spcot.sanders.com/pub/fvwm 2 piewm, developed by Don Hopkins, is a virtual window manager with the look-and-feel of tvtwm, with the additional of pie-shaped menus. It is available for ftp from: ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/piewm.tar.Z 3 tvtwm, is the virtual-window-manager version of twm (recommended over vtwm). It is available at: ftp.eng.umd.edu:/pub/tvtwm 4 vtwm is a virtual window manager with the look-and-feel of twm. It is available for ftp from: ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/vtwm-5.3.tar.gz 5 olvwm, developed by Scott Oaks, is a virtual window manager with the look-and-feel of OpenLook (Sun's windowing environment). It is available for ftp from: ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/olvwm4.tar.Z 6 ctwm, developed by Claude Lecommandeur, is an extension to twm, that features up to 32 multiple virtual screens, called workspaces. You switch from one workspace to another either by clicking on a button in an optional panel of buttons (the workspace manager) or by invoking a function. Each workspace can be customize by choosing different colors, names, and pixmaps for the buttons and root windows. It also features: * optional 3D window titles and border (ala Motif); * shaped, colored icons; * multiple icons for clients based on the icon name; * windows that can belong to several workspaces; * a map of your workspaces to quickly move windows between different workspaces; * icons, root backgrounds and buttons that can be animated; * pinnable and sticky menus. The latest version of ctwm, 3.3, is available for ftp from: ftp.x.org:/contrib/window_managers/ctwm-3.3.tar.Z ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IIX. Project Management Software Pete Phillips maintains a Project Management Software FAQ that is posted regularily to comp.software-eng . It is also available for ftp from: ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/misc/proj-plan ftp.wst.com:/pub/projplan The FAQ, reviews and glossary documents are available at: * http://www.wst.com/projplan/proj-plan.FAQ.html * http://www.wst.com/projplan/proj-plan.reviews.html * http://www.wst.com/projplan/proj-plan.glossary.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IX. Where can I find icons? 1 The xpm-3 distribution has a set of icons available. They may be ftp'd from: ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/xpm3icons.tar.Z 2 Anthony's X Icon Library is a large collection of monochrome bitmaps and color pixmaps for general use by the X community. These icon-images are small (usually less than 100x100 pixels) and can be used as: * program icons for general use by window managers; * buttons/widget/gadget images; * representing document types for a desktop program (like xdtm), wallpaper, landscapes, space ships, objects for games; * etc. The latest version, 1.5, is available for ftp from: ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/AIcons/ 3 The Really Humungous Library of Icons (http://www.cli.di.unipi.it/iconbrowser/) 4 Tony's Icon Collection (http://www.bsdi.com/icons) 5 Erin's Icon Collection (http://kaos.erin.gov.au/icons/) 6 Building Blocks and Icons (http://www.nas.nasa.gov/RNR/Education/icons.html) 7 Yahoo's Archive of Icons (http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo/Computers/World_Wide_Web/Programming/Icons/) 8 Graphic Element Samples (http://www-cs.stanford.edu/gifs/) Back to the index. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- X. Are there any editors/paint-programs for xpm/GIF/TIFF/etc. image-formats? 1 +Snapshot+ xpaint, developed by David Koblas, is a incredibly versatile mono-bitmap and/or colour-pixmap editing tool. It features, among other things: * the usual paint operations: * Brushes, Spray paint, Pencil; * Lines, Arcs, Pattern Fill, Text; * Boxes, Circles, Polygons (filled and un-filled); * edit multiple images simultaneously and cut/copy/paste between them; * "Fatbits"/zooming; * on-line help facility; * built-in font-selector; * reading and writing of X11 bitmaps, PPM, GIF, XPM, and TIFF image-formats; SGI RGB format (SGI only); * writing PostScript; The latest version, 2.1.1, is available for ftp from: ftp://ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/xpaint-2.1.1.tar.Z 2 pixmap, developed by Lionel Mallet, is an editor for XPM version 3.4 pixmap-format files, derived from Davor Matic's bitmap editor. It can be optionally be compiled with a Motif interface. The latest version, 2.6, is available for ftp from: ftp://ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/pixmap/pixmap2.6.tar.gz ftp://avahi.inria.fr:/pub/pixmap/pixmap2.6.tar.gz ----------------------------------------------------------------------- parallel, highlighting (in color) the differences between XI. Are there any apps that can display files in parallel, highlighting (in color) the differences between them? 1 +Snapshot+ ediff, developed by Michael Kifer, is a visual interface to diff and patch , accessed within emacs, that highlights the differences between two files in color. It features: * highlights differing region in multiple colors, including differences within the region; * view the files being compared side-by-side (windows split vertically), one-over-the-other (windows split horizontally) or in separate windows (frames); * either of the files being compared can be patched with the differences of the other, and old differences can also be recovered. Ediff is part of the standard Emacs and Xemacs distribution. 2 mgdiff, developed by Daniel Williams, is a graphical front-end to diff . When the user selects two files for comparison, it runs the diff command, parses the output and presents the results graphically. This presentation can also be used to generate a user-specified merge of the two files into a third file. This program's appearance is based upon a program called gdiff, available for Silicon Graphics workstations. The latest version of mgdiff is available for ftp at: ftp://ftp.x.org:/pub/R6untarred/contrib/Motif/mgdiff 3 +Snapshot+ tkdiff, developed by John Klassa, is a graphical front-end for the standard Unix diff utility, based on Tcl/Tk . Its features include: * Highlighted difference regions; * side-by-side viewing of files; * linked (synchronized) scrolling of the two files; * random access to difference regions. The latest version, 1.0b7, is available for ftp at: ftp://ftp.aud.alcatel.com/tcl/code/tkdiff-1.0b7.tar.gz ----------------------------------------------------------------------- XII. How do I make a screen-dump of my window and/or print it out? 1 xv, developed by John Bradley, is a full-featured program for displaying and manipulating images in the GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PBM, PGM, PPM, X11 bitmap, Utah Raster Toolkit RLE, PDS/VICAR, Sun Rasterfile, BMP, PCX, IRIS RGB, XPM, Targa, XWD, PostScript (if GhostScript is available) and PM formats. It can also convert between most of those formats. It features: * RGB and HSV colormap editing * copy/cut & paste * image resizing, zoom & cropping * image-processing via different algorithms * window-grab (for screen-dumps) xv 3.10a is shareware for personal use with a suggested registration fee of US$25. Commercial, industrial and institutional sites require a license fee of US$25. The latest version, 3.10a, including a PostScript the manual is available via ftp from: ftp.cis.upenn.eduL/pub/xv A less restrictive (wrt license), and older version, is available at: ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/xv-2.21.tar.Z ----------------------------------------------------------------------- XIII. Are there any mail-readers for X? 1 xmail, developed by Michael C. Wagnitz, is a GUI to the Berkeley Unix mail program and includes support for the X-face header (see entry for exmh, below, for ftp info). The latest version, 1.6 is available at: ftp://ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/xmail_1.6.tar.gz 2 xmh The latest version, is available at: ftp://ftp.uni-trier.de:/pub/unix/X11/R6/xc/programs/xmh Note that most other sites still archive the R5 version and the patches to take it up to R6. 3 +Snapshot+ exmh, developed by Brent Welch, is a Tcl/Tk-based (3.3 or better (but not 4.0)) wrapper to the MH (6.7 or 6.8) mail-handling system. The latest version, 1.5.3, is available at: ftp://parcftp.xerox.com:/pub/exmh/exmh-1.5.3.tar.Z The following packages are also required: * MH mail-handler package, at ftp.ics.uci.edu:/pub/mh * Metamail, for MIME support, at thumper.bellcore.com:/pub/nsb * Faces library, at cs.indiana.edu:/pub/faces * Expect, at ftp.cme.nist.gov:/pub/expect/expect.tar.Z 4 +Snapshot+ ML , developed by Mike Macgirvin, is an IMAP mail client. It features, among other things: * mailbox reading, composing, filing, and printing operations; * ability to follow URL's embedded in messages ( mosaic or netscape req.); * personal address book; * action scripting to simplify repetitive tasks; * mail filters utilizing a filter language to sort mail automatically; etc. ML requires X11R4, Motif 1.2, IMAP2bis, and optionally PGP 2.6.2. The latest version, 1.1.1a is available at: ftp-camis.stanford.edu:/pub/ml/ml.tar.Z Pre-compiled binaries are available for SunOS, Solaris and linux in: ftp-camis.stanford.edu:/pub/ml ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Tcl/Tk Tcl and Tk were developed by John Ousterhout , Sun Microsystems . Tcl stands for "tool command language" and is pronounced "tickle". Tcl is actually two things: a language and a library. Tcl is a simple textual language, intended primarily for issuing commands to interactive programs such as text editors, debuggers, illustrators, and shells; it can also be used as a library package embedded in application programs. Tk is an extension to Tcl which provides an interface to the X. Note that many users will encounter Tk via "wish", a simple windowing shell which permits the user to write Tcl applications interactively. * The home page for the Sun Labs Tcl/Tk Project is at: http://www.sunlabs.com/research/tcl ; * Frequently asked questions about Tcl/Tk are answered in the Tcl/Tk Hyper-FAQ ; * A complete report on the 1995 Tcl/Tk workshop, is available at http://www.cam-orl.co.uk/~fms/tcl95/tcl95.html ; * More details about Tcl/Tk are available from the Tcl/Tk WWW Info Page: * http://www.cs.uct.ac.za/tcl/Tcl.html or * http://namu19.gwdg.de/Tcl.html * The latest versions of Tcl/Tk can be obtained via ftp from: * ftp://ftp.smli.com/pub/tcl/ * ftp://ftp.aud.alcatel.com/tcl/ftp.cs.berkeley.edu * The definitive archive of Tcl/Tk applications and packages is at: ftp://ftp.aud.alcatel.com/tcl/code ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Acknowledgements * The description for GNU Emacs was adapted from the June 1994 GNU Bulletin. * The descriptions for the apps listed in this FAQ were adapted from their respective READMEs, newsgroup announcements or from man-pages. * The description for sam was adapted from an early technical paper, supplied by Castor Fu. * Information about Tcl/Tk was adapted from Larry W. Virden's excellent comp.lang.tcl FAQ. * The individual icons in the introductory-image are icons and other bits from the apps noted in this FAQ. I have merely arranged them in a (hopefully) visually pleasing collage and detrimentally added to the access-time when this FAQ is retrieved via the Web. * The picture of the camera is from Ioi K. Lam 's Home Page. * The entry for xv was supplied by Ralphe Neill. Notable corrections, additions and suggestions to this FAQ were kindly contributed by: Jamshid Afshar, Roderick Boem, Karel De Bruyne , Kevin Buettner, Jeffrey David Cohen , Mike Davis, Brian Decker, Bertrand Decouty, Mark Edel, Lionel Fournigault, Castor Fu, Sanjay Ghemawat , Stephen A. Gilbert, Stephen Gildea , Denis Girou, Amancio Hasty, Jonathan I. Kamens, Selimir Kustudic, Roger Larsson, Marty Leisner, Torbj|rn Lindgren, Thanh Ma, Mike Macgirvin , Ken Martin, Joe Moss, Duane T. Mun, John A. Murphy, Ralphe Neill, Aliza R. Panitz, Alan Peery, Bill Randle, Kevin Rodgers, Tim Rowley, Philip J. Tait, Gioacchino La Vecchia, Vegard Vesterheim, Larry W. Virden , Larry Wall, Brent Welch, Jim Wight and Andreas Zeller