Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!aipna!rjc From: rjc@uk.ac.ed.cstr (Richard Caley) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Question about App-defaults Message-ID: Date: 21 Oct 90 01:20:56 GMT Sender: news@aipna.ed.ac.uk Distribution: comp Organization: Center for Speech Technology Research Lines: 41 Hi, sorry if this is a silly question but... After a little experimentation I have convinced myself that an application default file always overrides my resource settings. Why? Is there some reason for this which eludes my poor addled user level mind? It seems to negate the purpose of app-defaults since they can't be used to set _defaults_, only to _force_ settings. Scenario as follows. We have an application which creates a load of buttons etc. The person writing the X code (Hi Rick) wants to set default fonts, button labels etc. but not to hard wire them into the code, so he put them into the app-defaults file -- *Command*font: -*new century schoolbook-medium-r-*-*-10-* Now, being awkward I like my buttons in bold italics, so I have in my .Xdefaults ( downloaded by xrdb ) -- *Command.font: -*-new century schoolbook-bold-i-*-*-10-*- When I run it it comes up with Roman button labels. Just to confuse matters if I don't download it and rely on Xlib looking for .Xdefaults, I get bold italic. Now, we could make the app-defaults contain only class definitions so that my definition is more specific and so would override, but that looses both programmer and user the class-instance distinction and would probably not work in general anyway (eg. a widget with 2 `Font' class resources). I assume _this_ is the reason it is such a pig to change the title on an Xman window... Explanations gratefully received. -- rjc@uk.ac.ed.cstr