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From: casey@gauss.llnl.gov (Casey Leedom)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Application resource file etiquette
Message-ID: <69294@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>
Date: 5 Oct 90 02:16:05 GMT
Sender: usenet@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lines: 31


  A while back someone asked whether it was ``good etiquette'' for an
application resource file to define specific fonts for application
resources.  People were concerned because such application specific
definitions override more general definitions like *Font that a user
might set up.

  If I remember right most people felt that specifying application fonts
was bad etiquette.  Yet I keep on running into programs which do.

  In the same vein, I keep on running into application resource files
which spend a lot of time defining which colors to use in which buttons,
etc. which almost invariably don't work right on monochrome displays.
Since a majority of our workstations are monochrome I spend a lot of time
commenting out all those carefully wrought color setups.  I did run into
one application that put ``#ifdef COLOR ... #endif'' around those
definitions, but of course that was useless since application resource
files aren't passed through cpp.

  I'd like to hear peoples comments on the following with respect to
application resource files:

    1.	Should fonts be defined?

    2.	Should colors be defined?

    3.	Is there any way to allow colors to defined, but only for color
	displays?  (Short of using two different resource files which
	the application picks between based on the display.)

Casey