Re: Beyond twm

On Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 4:38 AM, Martin Husemann <martin%duskware.de@localhost> wrote:

While we are here (and a bit related even): we seriously need something
slightly enhanced for xdm - I tried to "fix" the clunky font defaults
and give it a proper logo, but font, size, and overall appearance are
still disgusting (especially when dealing with vastly different screen
sizes and resolutions).

A separate but quite worthy project. I agree that they are related and suggest that it would be good to coordinate them.

The defaults for both xdm and twm date from an age when support for both mono and greyscale graphics systems was important. 8 bit color was high end at the time. This shows in the appearance of these programs when they are left in the default setup. The classic, stippled root window was chosen to support mono-graphics. I suspect that it is safe to ship a solid color root window by now. The interesting thing is that, if there are any of these classics still running, they are probably running NetBSD.

The xdm project is probably the easier of the two. It could get by with decent fonts, a nice logo and a tasteful, solid root window color. Some of this has already been done.

It's true that the dragon in the corner is going to be the screen resolution issue for both projects. It's just not OK anymore to assume 640x480 and let it go at that. To do it well, both projects will have to interrogate the server and make presentation choices based on the results.

pjr