R-1) How can I change the path/filenames that are used by XF ? R-2) How can I create multiple toplevel windows ? R-3) How can I show/hide toplevel windows ? R-4) How can I make a widget the "current widget" ? R-5) How can I bind actions to buttons ? R-6) How can I cut/copy/paste a widget ? R-7) How can I delete a widget ? R-8) How can I create templates ? R-9) How can I change the order of menubutton items ? R-10) How can I change the order of packed children ? R-11) How can I write my own procedures ? R-12) How can I copy/paste between text fields ? R-13) How can I retrieve the name of a specific widget ? R-14) How can I write source that is evaluated before the created application is actually started ? R-15) Is there a way to select colors/fonts etc. interactively ? R-16) How can I set widget names when they are created ? R-17) How can I change widget names ? R-18) How can I access global variables in the startup source ? R-19) Why is my toplevel window always placed at the same position by the window manager ? R-20) What should I do when I get an error message to stderr ? R-21) How can I use the mouse to arrange widgets? R-22) How can I set the values of sliders more accurately ? R-23) How can I create menubars ? R-24) Why doesn't the xftutorial run ? R-25) How can I make my X server secure ?
To change path/filenames that XF uses (i.e. if you don't have writing permission), call the pull-down menu item (Options | Path/file names).
To create multiple toplevel windows you select the item "Toplevel" from the "Standard" widget list.
To display an XF created toplevel window, you should use the automatically created function:
ShowWindow.toplevel
To remove an XF created toplevel window, you should use the automatically created function:
DestroyWindow.toplevel
where "toplevel" is the name of the toplevel window that should be displayed or removed . When you are running XF, please display and remove the toplevel windows with the XF menu attached to the label (Current widget path).
Making a widget the "current widget" means that actions like inserting a new widget or calling parameter setting will apply to this widget.
To make a certain widget the "current widget", you can double click the middle mouse button on the widget, or select the widget from the pull-down menus that are bound to the single elements of the displayed (Current widget path). These menus allow you to walk through the complete widget hierarchy.
P.S. The "<Double-B2>" selection does not work for menubuttons due to binding collisions (You can change the binding if you want).
To bind an action (procedure) to a button, first you create the button, and then you call the parameter setting for this button (either by making the button the current widget (R-4) and selecting the menu item (Configuration | Parameters), or by a double click with your right mouse button on the button widget).
Now you can edit the command string in the text field at the bottom of the parameter window.
To cut/copy a widget, make it the current widget (R-4), and select the menu item (Edit | Cut) or (Edit | Copy). To paste the cutbuffer to the current widget, select the menu item (Edit | Paste). When you cut/copy/paste widgets, please keep in mind that the widget names change. If the widget names are used in commands, the commands must be adapted. If you refer to the widgets via symbolic names, the symbolic name must be attached again to the new widget.
To delete the "current widget", you have to select the menu item (Edit | Delete).
To make a template, you simply put the widget structure you want to save into the cut buffer. Then you select the menu item (Edit | Save Cutbuffer (tmplt)). It is also possible to select (Misc | Module structure). Here you have a checkbutton at the bottom, where you can specify that you want to
handle templates. Now you can select procedures and a widget path. If you click (Save), the currently selected procedures and the widget path are saved to a file.
To change the position of a menu item in a menu, you select the menu item in the item list of the menu, and then slide the scale at right side of the children list.
To change the position of a widget in a packed parent, you select the widget in the children list, and then slide the scale at right side of the children list.
There is a menu item (Programming | Procedures) which gives you a window that allows full access to procedures. When inserting new procedures, the
procedure list is rescanned. This takes some time, and you should not click around during this time. This would probably activate the editing for the
wrong procedure. The rescan can be turned off.
To select the text of an entry/text field, you simply press the left mouse button over the text, and move the mouse with the pressed button. To insert the selected text into another entry/text field, type "<Control-v>" or "<Control-y>".
To get the name of a specific widget, you can press "<Modifier1-B2>" (may be changed by you). This brings up a small window with the name of the widget under the mouse pointer. The name is inserted into the selection buffer as well, so you can insert the name into text fields by pressing "<Control-v>" or "<Control-y>".
including external modules at application startup, parsing of passed arguments, something else ...:-).
To insert source to the very beginning of the application, you create a procedure named:
StartupSrc,
by selecting the menu item
(Programming | Startup source).
To insert source to the beginning of the application after the toplevel widgets have been created, you create a procedure named:
EndSrc,
by selecting the menu item (Programming | End source).
YES :-). To call a window with a color, font, cursor, keysym, pixmap or file selection, you just have to double click the right mouse button in the entry field that will contain the resource value.
To define a reasonable widget name when the widget is created, you can use the button (Configure and add) to create the widget. It is also possible to set an option under (Options | General options). This option is named (Ask for widget name on insertion). If this option is selected, XF asks you for a widget name before a new widget (or template) is inserted.
It is not possible to change the widget name directly. But (!!!) you can use symbolic names to access widget paths. Such a symbolic name makes you independent from concrete widget hierarchies, and the name can reflect the usage of the widget. There is also a new feature named alias in XF. Here you can define a new name for an already existing command. To call the alias handling select (Misc | Aliases).
To access global variables in the startup source (like "auto_path" etc.), you have to make them available with the global command ("global auto_path").
Your toplevel is placed at the position you (or the author of the program) gave the toplevel. To make the window manager place your window, call the parameter setting for the toplevel, and toggle the switch (Set window position) and/or (Set window size).
If there occur errors during the work with XF that are producing output to stderr, these errors are mirrored to the file xferrors in the XF tmp directory. If you can say that they are caused by XF or you are not sure, please send me the file so that I can locate the problem.
Drag them with modifier1-button1 (Meta-Left Button on Sun Sparcs). If you start dragging on the border, this will start the resizing. You may want to set default geometry to Placer, and allow layouting without the layout window, both in (Options | General).
Many sliders have to cover a wide range. The value of a slider can be set with the cursor keys.
To define a menubar, you create menubuttons that are all children of one frame. A menubutton is only handled by XF if the underline resource is set to something different than -1.
Usually, there are two reasons why the XF tutorial is not running.
The first reason is that you probably started xftutorial from the shell. Please run xftutrial from inside XF by selecting the menu item (Help | Tutorial).
The second reason may be that your X server is not secure, leading to an error message like this:
"X server insecure..."
In this case, take a look at the answer to question R-25.
Create the "~/.Xauthority" file on the systems you want to use with Tk (use the tool xauth(1X)). Disable xhost access, and restart the X server with
the -auth <fileName> option, or under xdm(1X). Some users, on OpenWindows systems, have reported that they need to log off and back on again to get the window system to recognize the "~/.Xauthority" file.
If you use xdm(1X), the "~/.Xauthority" file will be modified automatically. If you call the X server by hand, you have to add certain keys to the file using
xauth(1X). This will look about like this:
key=`xauthkey`
xauth add ${HOST}:0 . $key
xauth add ${HOST}/unix:0 . $key
xinit $HOME/.xinitrc -- -auth $HOME/.Xauthority
The program xauthkey is not part of the standard X system. You just need a way to create a hexdecimal random number. This can also be done by hand interactively. My "~/.Xauthority" file looked (a long time ago) like this (call "xauth list" to view the file):
garfield:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 1234abcdef garfield/unix:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 1234abcdef
If you still have problems, maybe the client that cannot connect to your server has no access to your "~/.Xauthority" file, or the display name you use is not the same as in your "~/.Xauthority" file. If you still have trouble, build your Tk with the security flag disabled (SECURITY_FLAGS in the Makefile) or take a deep look into the X security documentation.