[_CDCSL_93-16_]<1>Cedar>release>CedarEssentials>CedarEssentialsDoc.tioga

CedarEssentialsDoc.tioga

Eduardo Pelegri-Llopart, November 27, 1989 11:35:08 am PST

Christian Jacobi, May 14, 1992 11:44 am PDT

David Nichols, May 14, 1990 1:41 pm PDT

Willie-s, July 24, 1992 3:23 pm PDT

Update of this document from PCedar2.0 to Cedar10.1 is in progress but not yet finished.

Cedar Essentials

PCEDAR 10.1 —

Cedar Essentials

David Nichols

Abstract: CedarEssentials.df describes all the essential files needed to run Cedar at PARC. These include scripts for starting the X Window system and/or Cedar, and user customization files for X.

Original created by: Eduardo Pelegri-Llopart <pelegri.pa>

Maintained by: CedarImplementors:PARC:Xerox

Keywords: X windows, PARC conventions, Cedar

XEROX Xerox Corporation
Palo Alto Research Center
3333 Coyote Hill Road
Palo Alto, California 94304

1. Starting Cedar the easy way

The directory /project/cedar10.1 contains most of the files needed to start running Cedar.

To start a Cedar world with Cedar`s own viewers window system, type

enable cedar10.1
RawViewersWorld

To start a Cedar world within an X window, type

enable cedar10.1
X11ViewersWorld

2. Cedar commands

These commands are in /project/cedar10.1/bin

PCedarSetUp

This script is run once by a user to enable use of PCedar. It copies some X Window System customization files to the user's home directory, and creates some subdirectories that PCedar wants to find in the user's home directory. It does not change .cshrc or .login; the user must do this.

CedarCommander

This script starts a Cedar world and gets a commander, the Cedar command processor, running within it. From there, you can run may Cedar commands (ls, cd, etc.). If may give a startup command to the commander by specifying it on the original CedarCommander command. Two important commands are ``RawViewers'' to start the window system running using the bare display hardware, and ``X11Viewers'' to start the window sytem running inside an X window. Most people start their PCedar world by typing

CedarCommander RawViewers

to the Unix shell. In addition, you can give pcr or threads arguments to the CedarCommander command; these follow the initial CedarCommander command argument - that is you must give an initial command if you wish to give other arguments. A harmless one is pwd (if you only want to start a Commander.

CedarCommander pwd vp=1 shmtype=mmap thread=50

CedarCommander X11Viewers shmtype=mmap

StartX

Note that this script is outdated but still supported because some folks like it.

A script for starting X. If you've used PCedarSetUp to get your X files, you should get one XTerm (the terminal emulator) and the twm window manager. To exit X, move the mouse out of all windows and press the right button to get ``twm'' menu. Select the the ``kill twm manager'' option.

This script sets up the PATH and DISPLAY environment variables before starting the X server. If you want the X prorgams on your search path even when you're not running X, you'll need to change your .login file appropriately.

3. X Files

We now propose to set up Cedar the standard (=NON Cedar) way (Using runx). However, these old x window setup files are still supported for those folks using them already.

.xinitrc

This is the main initialization file. When all the commands in it are done, the X systems exits. Therefore, the last command is generally some long-running thing that you must exit to shut down the X world. For the default system, this is the twm window manager. We propose to use the olwm window manager instead.

.Xdefaults

Contains so-called ``resource information.'' This is a file of defaults for various X programs containing things like window size and location, colors, etc. Unlike some profiles, it is not actually read by the X applications. Instead, a program called xrdb (run from your .xinitrc) stuffs it all into the X server, where the applications find it by making X calls.

.twmrc

Bindings and defaults for the twm window manager.

.openwin-menu

Bindings and defaults for the olwm window manager.

The remaining files are in /project/pcedar10.1/X, where they can be referred to by scripts.

.Xmodmap

Defines the mappings between your keyboard and ``keys'' the X programs are expecting to see. Most of the keys default to reasonable things, but a few additional mappings are needed for twm and Cedar.

.xbitmap1, .xbitmap2

Bitmaps for making the default X cursor larger. This is not set up by default, but the prototype .xinitrc contains instructions on how to use them.

X has many window managers, and they are all quite flexible. Twm is what we default folks to, but it isn't required. Olwm is much easier to use then twm.

See [Cedar10.1]<X11>X11Doc.tioga for more information.

4. XCedar... files

These files are scrips which issue commands... These scrips serve the purpose of being callable from X window window manager commands. (Such window manager commands could not invoke the Cedar commands directly because window managers are typically using the bourne shell instead the cshell).

5. Environment variables

The following UNIX environment variables can be used to affect the behavior of CedarBasement, CedarCommander, and other Cedar startup programs. The interpretation of the switches is as follows: If the command is explicitly given a switch, that is the used value; otherwise, if the user has provided an environment variable giving the value for the switch, it is used; otherwise, the default value is used.

cedar←kind

Modifies the default selection between -opt and -plain. Default value is -opt. An explicitly given -opt or -plain value has precedence over the value of this variable.

cedar10𡤁

Indicates the location of [Cedar10.1]. The default value is /project/cedar10.1/release. Note: the official name of this variable is in lower case, with an underscore replacing the dot; this is due to the idiosyncrasies of the different shell parsers.

SWAPDIR

Indicates the directory where swap files will be located. The default value is /tmp and is correct for the standard workstation configuration at CSL and EDL.

TMPDIR

Indicates the directory where tmp files will be located. The default value is /tmp and is correct for the standard workstation configuration at CSL and EDL.

6. Other Documentation

For additional information see the documents in

[Cedar10.1]<Top>CedarDoc.df

in particularly

[Cedar10.1]<CedarDoc>CedarPrimer.tioga