problems with XFree

[Harold L Hunt II]

Dennis Foreman wrote:
> The message said to type "xterm -help", not "xfree -help". My error. Here is
> what I got:
> 
> foreman@FOREMAN ~
> $ xterm -help
> bash: xterm: command not found
> 
> I suspect that it is because the xfree directories are not in the basic
> cygwin path. Again, for newbies, one cannot assume that they will know how
> to set this path or that it even needs to be set. To be a really helpful
> application, these things should be considered.
> 

Yes, the problem is because /usr/X11R6/bin is not in the path by default.

Yes, we have thought many, many times about how to fix this.

No, no one has yet come up with a solution that will work for all cases.

Yes, we are very much looking forward to your patch that fixes this problem.

> As for the differences in xterm options between cygwin and SunOS, I will
> prepare a list of differences and validation of the errors I have received.
> 

That won't be very useful to us.  Sun almost certainly develops their 
xterm from their own code base, while XFree86's xterm is developed from 
a different code base.  Comparing these two xterm's is just like 
comparing any other proprietary implementation of a UNIX utility with 
its primary free implementation (e.g., sed, awk, grep, etc).

What would be extremely useful to us would be a list of differences 
between an xterm from XFree86 on Linux and an xterm under Cygwin.  Any 
differences there are likely errors on the Cygwin side.  However, no one 
has reported any differences to date.

You have an alternative solution here.  Sun, I believe, provides XFree86 
packages for Solaris.  You can install the XFree86 packages for Solaris 
and you will no longer have differences between the two commands.

Remember, we Cygwin/XFree86 folks are but mere packagers of XFree86 for 
Cygwin; none of us work on xterm.  If you have problems with xterm, you 
can take them up with the XFree86 project or with Thomas Dickey, the 
primary developer of XFree86's xterm:

http://dickey.his.com/xterm/xterm.html

Harold