Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!wiley!cbn
From: cbn@wiley.UUCP (Chris Newton)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Question re: input focus on DEC 3100
Message-ID: <5868@wiley.UUCP>
Date: 21 Oct 89 00:55:57 GMT
Reply-To: cbn@wiley.UUCP (Chris Newton)
Distribution: usa
Organization: TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 36


Question for those of you familiar with X Windows on a DEC 3100 Workstation:

(We are novices in the DEC X Windows world, so please bear with me...)

The normal mode of operation in this environment is to set the current keyboard
focus by clicking in the window of choice.  When a window is "clicked" it's
header turns black, indicating that it will receive all keyboard input,
regardless of the cursor position.  (This is similar to the "click-to-type"
mode in SunWindows.)  This works fine for all the X applications DEC
provides. (Although we poor humans take a while getting used to this way
of doing things! :-) )

We have an application which we are attempting to port from Suns to the 3100.
It is written using Athena widgets (not DEC widgets).  It comes up on the
3100, but NEVER gets the input focus. The window header never turns black and
all keyboard input goes to the shell from which the application was invoked.

We have managed to get keyboard input into some of the popup dialogs by
calling XSetInputFocus() immediately after their respective XtPopup() calls,
but this seems to me to be a kludgy solution, at best.  Attempts to call
XSetInputFocus() on the root widget or its immediate child (a form) end in
"parameter mismatch" errors from the X Server.

Is there a simple and obvious way we can get these sorts of applications to
behave like native DEC applications with respect to keyboard input?  Can we do this without changing source code?  If not, doesn't this smack in the face of X
Windows "portability", since this code runs fine on a Sun?

Thanks in advance for any answers.


-- 
Chris B. Newton
TRW - Coyoteworks - Redondo Beach, Ca.
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