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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<title>Updates and Corrections Issue 17</title>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#ffebcf" TEXT="#8e4510" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#0020F0"
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ALINK="#FF0000">
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<center>
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<H2>Updates and Corrections</H2>
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<H4>By Larry Ayers,
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<a href="mailto:layers@vax2.rainis.net">layers@vax2.rainis.net</a></H4>
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</center>
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<P> <HR>
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<p>After I finish these Gazette articles and get them uploaded to SSC,
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I can usually count on a URL changing or a newer version of a program being
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released. Sometimes that very day! The Gazette readers are also quick to let
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me know of any factual errors I've made. I've accumulated
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several of these corrections and updates and shall present them here.
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<hr>
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<center><h3>GV</h3></center>
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<p>Last month I wrote a short piece about GV, a new Postscript file viewer.
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I received a letter from the maintainer of the Debian GV package:<br><pre>
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Hello Larry!
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I enjoyed reading your article, but there are two remarks I want to
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make:
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- Your screen capture is one of the one modified gv that works with
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all Athena Widgets, including the standard one. These modifications
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were made by me (although it wasn't very hard once I realized how
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well Johannes separated the Xaw3d stuff from the rest).
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It would have been better to have a screen capture using libXaw3d, as
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that is the standard look and feel. The last statement about having
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to have Xaw3d is not very convincing this way.
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- There is a gv homepage now:
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<a href="http://wwwthep.physik.uni-mainz.de/~plass/gv/">
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http://wwwthep.physik.uni-mainz.de/~plass/gv/</a>
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This page currently features gv version 3, which can no longer be
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used without libXaw3d. The last version of gv supporting standard
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Xaw was 2.9.4 which will soon be available on a debian archive site.
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Version 3 is even better than version 2 with respect to look and feel
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(one of the first really convincing applications using Xaw3d, IMO)
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and an improved postscript scanner.
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While I'm sure that it isn't possible to change/add to the article,
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there could be a short notice in the next gazette.
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Helmut
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--
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Helmut Geyer Helmut.Geyer@iwr.uni-heidelberg.de
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public PGP key available : finger geyer@saturn.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de
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</pre>
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<hr>
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<center><h3>FileRunner</h3></center>
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<p>FileRunner has been updated several times since I reviewed it several
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months ago. The latest version, 2.3, has improved FTP capabilities (including
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the option of downloading files with a separate background process). I must
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confess I'm addicted to this file-manager. Once you get the hang of it file
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manipulation and directory traversals become so speedy that using it as
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<b>root</b> can be risky! Check the <a
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href="http://www.cd.chalmers.se/~hch/filerunner.html"> FileRunner WWW
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site</a> for latest releases and news.
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<p>Here's an example of a user-configured action-button for FileRunner, which
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will mostly interest XEmacs users (though it could probably be adapted easily
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for use with GNU Emacs). Create a file in the <b>~/.fr</b> directory named
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<b>cmds</b>, then enter this text into it:<pre><code>
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# This is an example of user-defined commands. This file should be named
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# cmds and placed in your ~/.fr directory. It will then be read by
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# FileRunner at startup. Versions of FileRunner prior to 2.3 need to have
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#the file named .fr_cmds and placed directly in the home directory.
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# This list should contain all user-defined commands formatted as:
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# { { <button-title> <procedure-name> } {..} {..} }
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set config(usercommands) {
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{ XEmacs xemacs }
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}
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#
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proc xemacs { filelist srcdir destdir } {
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cd $srcdir
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# set l {}
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foreach f $filelist {
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exec gnuclient -q $f
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}
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}
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</code></pre>
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<p>For this to work, you must have <i>gnuserv</i> running; this can be started
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from your <i>~/.xemacs-options</i> file by including the line<br>
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<code>(gnuserv-start)</code><br> in the file. What this button does is send
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the files you've selected to an already-running XEmacs process (I usually have
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one running in a different virtual desktop than the one FileRunner is using).
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XEmacs will then open up a new frame in your current desktop with the file(s)
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displayed in it. This is handy for browsing source code.
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<center><h3>wm2 and wmx </h3></center>
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<p>In LG #14 I wrote about the minimalist window-manager wm2, written by
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British programmer Chris Cannam. Since then wm2 has spawned a variant, known
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as wmx. Evidently Mr. Cannam felt that spartan wm2 was becoming decadently
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featureful. Wm2 was stripped down to the bare minimum; no more
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frame-background pixmaps,etc. Wmx is just wm2 with the afore-mentioned
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pixmaps and a basic virtual-desktop utility. It has one more feature which I
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thought was very cleverly designed: if you click the middle mouse button on
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the desktop an application menu appears. Unlike most window-managers, the
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entries on the menu are a snap to set up. Simply create a subdirectory
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stemming from your home directory called <i>.wmx</i> and symlink executables
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to it. This can be even done while wmx is running. Whatever appears in
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<i>~/.wmx</i> will appear in the menu. The menu can be configured with a
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transparent background so that it has a very stylish and spare appearance. As
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with wm2 the configuration can only be changed by recompiling, but this can be
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done very quickly as the source is not large or complex. Source for either
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wm2 or wmx can be obtained from
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<a href="http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~cannam/wm2.html">
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the wm2 web-site.</a>
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<center><h3>Afterstep</h3></center>
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<p>A reader pointed out an error in my description of the Afterstep
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window-manager in LG #14. Rather than being based on Fvwm2 code, Afterstep is
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based on Fvwm version 1 code. Incidentally, pre-release 6 has been released
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and is well worth a trial. Several bugs have been fixed but the improved
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documentation alone makes it worth the download.
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<center><h3>Xvile</h3></center>
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<p>Lately it seems that a fad is sweeping the insular world of vi-like
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editors. First the X versions of Elvis and Vim appeared with
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pull-down menus; now it appears that Xvile will soon have a menubar as well.
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If <b>a:</b> you like vile/xvile and <b>b:</b> you have the Motif libs
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installed, you may want to take a look at the patches for vile 7.00 available
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from the <a href="ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile/patches">Vile ftp site.</a>
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The patches A through G need to be applied to the vile 7.0 source. It looks
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like the menu items will be fairly easy to set up, as they make use of the
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standard vile functions. An implementation for non-Motif X setups is
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planned.
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<p>I have mixed feelings about GUI conveniences such as menus in a vi editor.
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One of the appealing traits of these editors is the lack of such visible
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features combined with a wide array of invisible and powerful commands.
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Little overhead but great power and speed. If you have to reach for the mouse
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and select a menu-item, why not use Nedit (for example) which is designed as a
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mouse-oriented editor? On the other hand, how many users have had an
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unpleasant first-time experience with vi and rejected it forever? At
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least the menubar will have a "quit-ZZ" item, allowing a novice to end a
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first session without having to desperately flee to another virtual console
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and kill the vi process from afar!
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<center><h3>TkDesk</h3></center>
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<p>The latest version of this versatile desktop/file manager can be found at
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<a href="http://sun1.rrzn-user.uni-hannover.de/~zzhibol/tkdesk">the TkDesk home site.</a> Version 1.0b4 has been released and many
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minor bugs have been fixed. There are three patches available on the web-site
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which should be applied by users of the program. Two of them are changes to
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<i>*.tcl</i> files, whereas the third is a c-source-level change which
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requires recompilation. Debian users can instead install a patched TkDesk
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package which is available from the <i>/bo/binary-i386/x11</i> directory of
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ftp.debian.org and its mirrors.
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<center><h3>The Midnight Commander</h3></center>
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<p>For the past several months a beta development cycle has been underway in
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preparation for the release of mc-3.1.5. The recent releases (the latest as
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of this writing is patchlevel 25) have been very stable and usable. If you
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use the Midnight Commander frequently it might be worth your while to try the
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new version, as many improvements have been made.
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<p>An internal editor has been incorporated into mc, though you still can
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change the settings and use any console-mode external editor. The FTP
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capabilities of mc have been augmented and the Tk version has made great
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strides and needs just a few more features to be the equal of the
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classic console version. mc now has the ability to dive into <i>*.rpm</i> and
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<i>*.deb</i> files in the same manner it has been able to do with <i>*.tgz</i>
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and <i>*.zip</i> files, allowing you to inspect their contents without
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unpacking the archives.
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<p>It's only available in source form, but it comes with a good configure script
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and compiles easily here. The source is available from
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<a href="ftp://ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx/Midnight/devel">the mc home site</a>.
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<center><h3>XEmacs Update</h3></center>
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<p>Last month I wrote about the release of XEmacs 19.15. The XEmacs team
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didn't stop and rest on their laurels (probably because some unexpected
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problems showed up after the release!); beta releases of XEmacs 20.1 began
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showing up about twice a week at <b>ftp.xemacs.org</b>. It looked as if
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version 20.1 was about to be released, but for some reason the release was
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cancelled and they moved on to betas of 20.2. I'm running beta 2 now,
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and have found that several small problems with 19.15 have been fixed. The
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Customization utility works quite a bit better now, for one. When 20.2 is
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released I would recommend obtaining it, as it looks like it will be an
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improvement over 19.15. Another approach if you've already installed 19.15 is
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to visit <a href="http://www.xemacs.org/xemacs-19.15-patches/patch-page.html">
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the XEmacs patches page</a>, which offers patches to upgrade 19.15 to
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patchlevel 2. The problems dealt with are described on the page; if the
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patches concern modes or utilities you never use, there's no point in applying them.
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<p><hr><p>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1997, Larry Ayers <BR>
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Published in Issue 17 of the Linux Gazette, May 1997</H5></center>
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