Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!mtuxo!mtgzz!avr
From: avr@mtgzz.att.com (a.v.reed)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: xinit lacks init in it (FLAME!)
Summary: Who needs it?
Message-ID: <4479@mtgzz.att.com>
Date: 1 Sep 88 18:51:11 GMT
References: <641@kaon.uchicago.edu> <8808311656.AA07475@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ
Lines: 63

In article <8808311656.AA07475@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU>, jim@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Jim Fulton) writes:
> This is actually one of the highest priorities of vendors of intergrated user
> interfaces.  I don't think anybody gets the warm fuzzies from xinit, and
> we certainly encourage people to build (and give back :-) better ways of
> controlling one's environment.  Nobody has ever accused the public release
> of being acceptable for end users.

Good news: I am using a better way of controlling my environment. And I
did not even have to build it myself. It came with my UNIX (TM) system.
It is called a "SHELL"! Try it. You'll like it. You probably have
several. The one I use is called the Korn Shell (ksh).

> > But it looks like a real init program will have to be contrib'ed.

You're welcome. I use the following aliases in my $ENV:

alias xrun=". $HOME/.xrun 2>$HOME/x.err"
alias -x xkill='kill `ps -g|/bin/grep Xsun|cut -c1-5`'

My $HOME/.xrun contains the following:

#/bin/ksh
TTY=`tty`
DISPLAY=adam:0;export DISPLAY
(sleep 2 ; xterm -fn 6x10 -bw 3 =80x24+0-450 -C -rv) 2>/dev/null &
(sleep 3 ; xterm -fn 6x10 -bw 3 =81x44-0-0 -rv) 2>/dev/null &
(sleep 4 ; xterm -fn 6x10 -bw 3 =81x44-0+0 -rv) 2>/dev/null &
(sleep 5 ; xterm -fn 6x10 -bw 3 =81x44+0-0 -rv) 2>/dev/null &
(sleep 6 ; xterm -fn 6x10 -bw 3 =81x89+576+0 -rv) 2>/dev/null &
(sleep 7 ; xterm -fn 6x10 -bw 3 =81x89-576+0 -rv) 2>/dev/null &
(sleep 8 ; xclock -analog =83x83+0+0 -update 1 -rv) 2>xclock.out &
(sleep 9 ; xsetroot -gray) 2>/dev/null &
(sleep 12 ; uwm) 2>uwm.out &
(sleep 14 ; xset r off m 4 2 s 600 ) 2>/dev/null &
Xsun -mono -fp /usr/mtgzfs1/avr/x11r2.core/fonts/snf -a 4 -t 2 \
	-co /usr/mtgzfs1/avr/x11r2.core/util/rgb/rgb -r \
	>/$HOME/xsun.out 2>&1
case $TTY in
	/dev/ttyp* )
		kbd_mode -e
		;;
	* )
		kbd_mode -a
		setkeys reset
		;;
	esac
clear

This works perfectly, giving me exactly the server and clients I put in
it. I can change it with my usual text editor. I don't need to learn any
special initialization file formats. And anyone who knows sh can take
take my .xrun, read it, understand it, and customize it for their own
use in less time than is spent by some ignorami in reading the manual
page for xinit.

> Xinit is a lot like "ed".  It's works, and it's there; but, most people only
> use it under duress, when nothing "better" is available. 

Correction: most people use it only because they don't understand
UNIX, which has to do with knowing what tools are available,
and using the right tool for the job. To us tool-users, the very
existence of an "xinit" is proof that not everyone plays with a full
toolbox.
					Adam Reed (avr@mtgzz.ATT.COM)