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From: rws@expo.lcs.mit.EDU (Bob Scheifler)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Illegal databases confuse XrmParseCommand
Message-ID: <9103091431.AA11220@expire.lcs.mit.edu>
Date: 9 Mar 91 14:31:09 GMT
References: <6990@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
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    As XrmParseCommand is supposed to set rather than modify a database

What aspect of the (official) documentation implies this to you?
In the Xlib manual, the beginning of section 10.11.4, it says
"modify a resource database".  The description of the database argument
is given as "Specifies the resource database.", not "Returns a newly
created resource database.".  The following paragraph says "loads
recognized options into the specified database".  It all sounds to
me like you're supposed to pass in a valid database.