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diff --git a/doc/README.xvt b/doc/README.xvt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6537d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/README.xvt @@ -0,0 +1,171 @@ +------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Rxvt is a heavily modified version of xvt, many modifications were made by +Rob Nation <nation@rocket.sanders.lockheed.com> to make it a little more +compact and to add a few simple features. + +This is the README that came with xvt-2.0. It is included mainly to give +the original author credit for his work. + + README file for xvt 2.0 + ----------------------- + +Xvt is an X terminal-emulator that is designed to be more or less +compatible with xterm while using much less swap space. It is mainly +intended for use at sites which use large numbers of X terminals but +may also be useful on single workstations that are short of memory. On +a SPARCstation running SunOS4, an initially invoked xvt uses about 1/3 +megabyte of swap while xterm uses about 1.3 megabytes (obtained by +running pstat rather than ps which seems to give unreliable size +figures on SPARCs). The main way that xvt achieves its small size is +by avoiding the use of the X toolkit. + +The current version of xvt is our default X terminal emulator and has +been used for eight months by students, computing support staff and +service users and so is fairly well tested. + +Supported architectures +----------------------- + +One of the major changes between xvt-1.0 and 2.0 is that xvt-2.0 is +much more portable. The released version should build and run on all +the architectures I have access to, namely: SunOS4, SunOS5, HP-UX 8.0, +HP-UX 9.0, DEC OSF/1 V1.2 and ULTRIX 3.?. In addition, the teletype +initialisation code has been completely restructured to make it more +portable. Almost all the system dependent code is in the single source +file, ttyinit.c. + +Xterm features not supported +---------------------------- + + - Tektronix 4014 emulation + + - Session logging + + - Pop-up menus. The only one of xterm's popup menu commands that is + provided in xvt is displaying and hiding of the scrollbar and this + is done simply by pressing any mouse key in the window with the + CONTROL key held down. + + - Toolkit style configurability. In particular, xvt does not allow + the user to remap the mouse or keyboard keys. + +Major xterm features that are supported +--------------------------------------- + + - VT100 emulation. Most of the main escape sequences are supported - + certainly all those used by the standard screen based UNIX + applications. + + - Lines that scroll off the top of the window are saved can be + scrolled back with a scrollbar. + + - Text selection and insertion including double and triple click for + words and lines. + +Differences between xvt2.0 and xvt1.0 +------------------------------------- + + - xvt2.0 is eight bit clean and will generate and display eight bit + characters. The META key can be used to generate characters with + the eighth bit set (in eight bit mode) or prefix by escape (in seven + bit mode). + + - The teletype setup code has been rewritten to make it much more + portable. See the comments at the head of ttyinit.c. + + - Exposure handling has been made much more efficient so that xvt should + now be useable with window managers that provide opaque window movement. + + - VT100 graphics characters are supported for fonts that include them. + + - There is now a -ls option to enable the use of a login shell. + + - Colored text cursors are now supported. + + - There is support for the -C (console window) option but only on + SunOS 4. + + - Bold characters are generated by overstriking if no bold font is + specified. + + - Function keys generate escape sequences as in xterm. + + - A number of bugs have been fixed: + + - Setting the title without a terminating ^G no longer locks up. + + - Paste followed by a keystroke will always insert in the correct + order. + + - Pasting an uninitialised string will not cause a crash. + +Other differences between xvt and xterm +--------------------------------------- + + - Xvt has a couple of additional enquiry escape sequences: + + ESC[7n - causes xvt to respond with the name of its X display in a + form that can be used to initialise the DISPLAY environment + variable. If this is done in a user's .cshrc file it + provides a way to automatically update DISPLAY after an + rlogin. Something like the following should work if the + initial ^[ in the echo command is an ESC character: + + if(!($?DISPLAY)) then + if($?term) then + if($term =~ xterm*) then + stty -echo >/dev/tty + echo -n '^[[7n' >/dev/tty + setenv DISPLAY `line </dev/tty` + stty echo >/dev/tty + endif + endif + endif + + ESC[8n - causes xvt to respond with a hex encoded copy of the server's + magic cookie which can be used to update a user's .Xauthority + file. We have a program to do this which could be made available + if anyone is interested. + +Known Bugs +---------- + + - xvt does not know about transferring selections in installments and so + making large selections or trying to insert large selections will + fail. The maximum selection size supported is server dependent but + seems to be a little under 64k on all our servers. + + - xvt does not look in all the approved places for its X resources. + It does, however, work correctly with resources that have been + loaded into the server using xrdb + +Building and installing xvt +--------------------------- + +Xvt does not use imake but does come with a simple Makefile +configuration scheme that provides some help with getting the Makefile +right. If you want to build xvt on one of the supported architectures +then you should uncomment the appropriate definition at the start of +the Makefile and then run `make config', which will modify other +Makefile comments to bring them into line with the chosen +architecture. + +To install xvt, you should edit the MANDIR and BIN pathnames in the +Makefile and then type 'make install' as root. When installed for +general use, xvt needs to belong to root and have the setuid flag set +so that it can make entries in the /etc/utmp file. + +Thanks to all the people who have mailed bug reports, patches and +local improvements. Some requested additions have gone into V2.0, +others perhaps should have, but were left out due to lack of time. + +Please send bug reports and WIBNIs to: + +John Bovey +Computing Laboratory +University of Kent at Canterbury +Canterbury +Kent +UK + +email: jdb@ukc.ac.uk |