Xref: utzoo comp.sys.dec:5546 comp.windows.x:35393 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!nddsun1!dover!wald From: wald@dover.tmc.edu (Steve Wald) Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec,comp.windows.x Subject: Re: Bugs and gripes and questions: Xwindows on a DS5000 Summary: Indictment on DEC Software Engineering Keywords: DEC software quality Message-ID: <980@nddsun1.sps.mot.com> Date: 17 Apr 91 18:31:41 GMT References: <977@nddsun1.sps.mot.com> Sender: root@nddsun1.sps.mot.com Reply-To: wald@dover.sps.mot.com (Steve Wald) Followup-To: comp.sys.dec Distribution: na Organization: Motorola, Inc. Lines: 54 This is the harshest indictment against DEC software quality I've seen yet: ----------------------- From: uunet!reed.edu!minar (Nelson Minar) Organization: Reed College, Portland, OR a lot of the special keys on the keyboard have nothing to do with actual functionality. What do we do? We run a real windowing system - X11R4, not DEC X. Try typing "rm /usr/bin/dx*" to start with. -- minar@reed.edu ----------------------- And more excerpts from another sympathizer: ----------------------- From: Ethan Merritt Organization: University of Washington, Seattle ... after a brief try using MWM, OWM, and the DEC-supplied window manager whose name escapes me at the moment, I tried and stuck with TWM as being by far the most comfortable. ... The configuration file .twmrc is highly commented and I have found customization of many of the sorts of behaviour you're griping about to be straightforward. I believe that the various other window managers can in fact be made to do the same things, but it was my experience that the documentation to tell you how wasn't anywhere obvious. [lots of specific answers to my questions deleted... send email for a copy] In general you may want to pull over current X11 utilities from the MIT distribution rather than using the ones that come bundled with Ultrix. I think that the Ultrix ones are slightly more integrated with the system, but they also seem to be several version behind, bugs and all. There is a lot of good stuff available via anonymous ftp from MIT (try expo.lcs.mit.edu) and from gatekeeper.dec.com, among other sites. Not just X11. If you do any image viewing or manipulation I recommend picking up a copy of ImageMagick from either of the above ftp sites. merritt@u.washington.edu ----------------------- Thanks to Nelson and Ethan for proving that I'm not alone. Sympathies to any RESPONSIBLE engineer/managers at DEC who lost the battle to provide the GOOD STUFF with the workstations in the first place. -- Steve Wald, Motorola Inc. wald@dover.sps.mot.com