Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!emory!att!cbfsb!mark
From: mark@cbfsb.att.com (Mark Horton)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.open-look
Subject: Re: ctrl h in text windows and text panels
Keywords: Openlook Problems and Annoyances
Message-ID: <1990Dec7.203935.20647@cbfsb.att.com>
Date: 7 Dec 90 20:39:35 GMT
References: <353@shuksan.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 81

In article <353@shuksan.UUCP>, scott@shuksan.UUCP (Scott Moody) writes:

I've faced some of these.  I called 800-USA-4-SUN and had good answers
to most questions within a couple days.

> Problem 1:
> 
> I can't figure out how to get CTRL H to equal backspace in
> text windows, or text panel items. If it is in the xmodmap stuff
> I can't see it. ctrl-h works in shelltool since it is a regular
> termcap.

This one drove me nuts too.  Turns out if you add
	Keyboard.DeleteChar:	^H
to your .Xdefaults it starts to work almost everywhere.
The exception I've found is in the header panel in mailtool,
where ^H is still ignored.

> Problem 2:
>  on a b/w sparcstation running openlook 2, inserting characters (in vi)
>  results in the character under the cursor that is moving to the
>  right disappearing (after about 20 characters). 
>  I then have to do a refresh to get it back. 
>  Unfortunately this doesn't happen all the time.

I haven't found this, and I use vi pretty heavily.  One thing I *have*
found is that the default shell tool uses a 35x80 window, but all the
termcaps in the world think sun and sun-cmd have 34 lines.  If you
rlogin to a machine running an older TCP/IP that won't pass the window
size, vi messes up.  I finally changed my .openwin-menu to explicitly
say "-size 593 444" which forces a 34x80 window.

You didn't say if you're rlogined to another host, or if you're in shell
tool or xterm or what, and what your window size is.  I seem to recall a
bug in vi that messed up tab stops if the screen width (normally 80) wasn't
a multiple of the tab stop (normally 8) with lines to long to fit on one
physical screen line.

> Major Annoyance:
>   Moving from kernal based sunview to network based xview, I notice lots
>   of lost events from the keyboard if the system is loaded. Like I start
>   a compile in one window, move to another and start typing (without
>   click to type). Three possible things occur:
>      (1) the typing goes to the old window
>      (2) the typing goes to the bitbucket 
>      (3) the typing appears in new window - sometimes delayed.
>   I had heard this was a problem with X but for it to happen all the
>   time really sucks! We are getting faster machines but slower window
>   systems.

I agree.  I think what's happening here is that there is no serialization
of keystrokes and mouse motions like sunview does.  This can cause them
to be interpreted in the wrong order.  I find that when I move the mouse
I have to wait for the cursor to go solid; if I don't my keystrokes will
often go to the previous window.  This can take awhile on a Sun 3 with
20-25 windows up on it, which is what I'm looking at right now.  It's
probably a lot better on a Sun 4.  I do try to keep my windows down to a
minimum, but at the moment I really need all these dials and gages.

One thing that does seem to help is getting in the habit of letting the
fileserver do the work and the workstation be an X terminal.  I've put
menu items like
    "X Term fsa..."	exec rsh cbfsa DISPLAY=`hostname`:0 $OPENWINHOME/demo/xterm -title cbfsa -name cbfsa -bg yellow -ls -sb
    "FSA Mail Tool..."	exec rsh cbfsa DISPLAY=`hostname`:0 $OPENWINHOME/bin/xview/mailtool"
in my .openwin-menu; this lets the fileserver cbfsa do the work, and response
is much faster.

Now if only I could figure out how to make xterm give me a bigger font!

(Also, can I change the label in an xterm window with an escape sequence?)

> Annoyance 3:
>   the text panel items show little arrows on the left and right meaning
>   there are more characters in those directions. Unfortunately you have
>   to click the arrow one at a time! There is no hold arrow down and
>   scroll.

I assume you're talking about mailtool.  I haven't found a workaround for
this one either.

	Mark