215 lines
9.0 KiB
HTML
215 lines
9.0 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.7">
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<TITLE>AfterStep FAQ: Icons, graphics and pixmaps</TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="AfterStep-FAQ-6.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="AfterStep-FAQ-4.html" REL=previous>
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<LINK HREF="AfterStep-FAQ.html#toc5" REL=contents>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<A HREF="AfterStep-FAQ-6.html"><IMG SRC="next.gif" ALT="Next"></A>
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<A HREF="AfterStep-FAQ-4.html"><IMG SRC="prev.gif" ALT="Previous"></A>
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<A HREF="AfterStep-FAQ.html#toc5"><IMG SRC="toc.gif" ALT="Contents"></A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="s5">5. Icons, graphics and pixmaps</A></H2>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.1">5.1 Icons staying put</A>
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</H2>
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<P>In old versions of AfterStep, an icon to be used in Wharf must contain
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at least one transparent pixel; otherwise the symptoms you've
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mentioned will turn up. Simply add a transparent pixel and
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everything should work flawlessly.
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<P>Newer versions of AfterStep fix this problem, allowing you to use icons
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without transparent pixels in the Wharf. You should really upgrade to the
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latest version.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.2">5.2 Colormap issues</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Yes, I (Andrew) know that "colour" is spelled incorrectly here. I can't
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help it that those who set up X and Linux spell incorrectly.
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<P>
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<P>
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<H3>When I run AfterStep some of the icons on the button bar don't show up. If I load them at the top they show up, but then the other ones don't. Also, when I use Netscape, the colors get wacky. What's wrong?</H3>
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<P>
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Odds are you are using a 256 color (8bit) display. A quick explanation is that
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you can only have 256 colors on the screen at the same time, and the more
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colors you use in Wharf (the button bar), the fewer you can use for other
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applications and icons. I would suggest upgrading your video hardware or using
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more conservative (less colorful) icons. For netscape, an option is to run it
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with the 'netscape -install' command. This will ensure that netscape gets a
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good deal of the color that it wants. It will, however, also result in the
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colors flashing whenever you move the mouse in or out the Netscape window. You
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decide whether you can live with that.
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<P>One trick, it seems, is to run AfterStep without a Wharf. That reduces the
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number of colors used at any one time.
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<P>You might want to use low-color icons, as well; you can find a good collection
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of low-color icons (all of them together use only 21 colors) at
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<A HREF="http://the-labs.com/AfterStep/">http://the-labs.com/AfterStep/</A>.
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<P>If you are using asclock, you can configure it to use fewer colors. See below.
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<P>After version 1.4, AfterStep uses config. files ending with "8bpp" for 8 bit
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displays, and low-color icons from icon/8bpp. You can modify these files to
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use fewer colors.
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<P>
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<H3>I am having trouble under AS while using xscreensaver with its own colormap.</H3>
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<P>So far, no solution has surfaced to this problem. It appears that AfterStep
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is not handing over control of the display. There seem to be other related
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problems of this nature, mostly on Suns. Any additional information would be
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appreciated: Gerhard den Hollander (<CODE>gerhard@jason.nl</CODE>) is working on this
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problem.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.3">5.3 Icons disappear from Wharf. What's wrong?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>You are most likely running out of colors. Either upgrade your hardware, switch
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to a higher color depth (i.e. 16 bpp or higher), or use icons that contain
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fewer colors.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.4">5.4 How do I create an icon with a transparent pixel?</A>
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</H2>
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<P> You don't really need to do this any more: the preferred method here is
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to upgrade your AS version. Still, if you don't want to download, you can
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fix your problem easily. An xpm is a simple text file. Therefore, the only
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image manipulation software you will need is vi (or some other text editor).
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If you edit your xpm, you will become aware of its beauty and simplicity. At
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the bottom you will notice a character representation of your image. At the
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top there is a color listing corresponding to each pixel of the character
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representation.
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<P>You have two options to create a transparent pixel:
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<P>
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<OL>
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<LI>Change an existing pixel color to transparent:
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Simply find the pixel character(s) you wish to become
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transparent, then go back up top and find that character in the
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listing. Change the color code (number beginning with a #) to
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None. Save, and you're all tootin'.
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</LI>
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<LI>Create a new transparent pixel:
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Edit the line near the top corresponding to the
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height/width/number of colors/chars per pixel. Increment the
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number of colors (third value) by one. Then in the list of
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pixels and color values add the line:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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c None
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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Where `c' should be a character that is not being used by any other
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color. From there save and take off.</LI>
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</OL>
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<P>If you're the slightest bit unsure, take a look at one of the xpm files in the
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AfterStep distribution's icons directory.
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<P>The `correct' size for a Wharf icon is 48x48 pixels. However, if you use bigger
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icons, they will display correctly, up to 64x64, which is the default size for
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the Wharf buttons.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.5">5.5 How do I make my own XPMs?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>See the previous question. Or, if you're trying to convert a compressed
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file to an xpm, try using an image-manipulation tool like xv or the GIMP.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.6">5.6 Where can I find some cool pixmaps for the Wharf or desktop?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>There are dozens of sites scattered around the Internet which will provide
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you with useful graphics. Some good links to start with can be found on the
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official AfterStep home page.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.7">5.7 Why doesn't program `xyz' work in 16bpp?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Several 8bpp programs don't work on displays without a PseudoColor
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visual available. Several PC X servers don't support PseudoColor
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visuals on displays running in TrueColor mode. You should buy an SGI.
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Or run two simultaneous X servers, if you're on Linux.
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<P>Note for SGI users willing to play with their bpp :
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<P>One has to tweak the arguments to X in /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers.
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The following worked for Tim Buller (<CODE>buller@math.ukans.edu</CODE>)
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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:0 secure /usr/bin/X11/X -bs -c -nobitscale -visid 0x34
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>Where Visual ID 0x34 (reported by xdpyinfo) is:
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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visual: visual id: 0x34
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class: TrueColor
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depth: 24 planes
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available colormap entries: 256 per subfield
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red, green, blue masks: 0xff, 0xff00, 0xff0000
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significant bits in color specification: 8 bits
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.8">5.8 Why doesn't xv do xyz in 16bpp? </A>
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</H2>
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<P> xv doesn't cope well with 16bpp in three ways. First, it can't grab
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pieces of the screen. Second, if you grab pieces of the screen with xwd and
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try to display them with xv, it doesn't work well. xwud works. Third, if you
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display a 24bpp picture, it doesn't bother to dither it down to 16bpp,
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resulting in bad pictures. You might want to consider using the GIMP, or
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xli.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.9">5.9 Why don't icon names change when the application changes it?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Sorry, but icon names change since AfterStep 1.1. Upgrade.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.10">5.10 Why does application xyz not have an icon?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>You need to define an icon for your program in your database file. It's a
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good idea to define a default icon for all "unknown" programs. In the
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latest versions of AfterStep, you do this in the database file:
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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Style "*" Icon Unknown.xpm
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.11">5.11 Why do I get bad behaviour with backgrounds?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>In earlier versions of AfterStep, background loading was handled at start-up
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by invoking another program in the .steprc. While version 1.4 allowed the use of
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XPMs only, 1.4.4 restored the ability to load jpegs (or whatever) with
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another program. The catch is that the auxiliary program is defined in
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configure.h at compile time. Edit the configuration to reflect the accurate
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path to your favourite image viewing program, and then re-compile AfterStep.
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<P>The default program to use is xli. Many people don't have this on their
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system, and prefer to use xv instead. This choice is still a compile-time
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option. Moreover, the Pager code is broken in some distributions, so that
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the jpeg handling doesn't always work.
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<P>The loading of backgrounds is handled by the Pager module. If you're not
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using the Pager, then the backgrounds won't get loaded. In that case, you
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can make the call to the background-loading program in your autoexec file.
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<P>As of this writing, the Pager module is being re-coded to include (native)
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support for background jpegs. This new pager is included in a patch to
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version 1.5 beta 4. Version 1.5 will include native support for jpegs.
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<P>Note that jpegs don't take any less memory while loaded; they only take less
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disk space!
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<P>
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<HR>
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<A HREF="AfterStep-FAQ-6.html"><IMG SRC="next.gif" ALT="Next"></A>
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<A HREF="AfterStep-FAQ.html#toc5"><IMG SRC="toc.gif" ALT="Contents"></A>
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