Mail Archives: cygwin/2007/09/16/17:02:24
Max Bowsher wrote:
> I just updated to rxvt-20050409-7, and the font changed to a very weird
> display using a proportional-width font, but displayed with each
> character left-aligned within a fixed-size area which appears to
> correspond to the largest character within the font.
That's the "normal" behavior when "I can't find the font you wanted".
> At a guess, this is because the new /etc/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt specifies
> "bitstream vera sans mono" and I have no font by that name.
Yes.
> If that's the case, it is a bug for the rxvt package to depend on a
> non-standard font for its default display.
Not exactly. rxvt is in a unique position in that it is used in two
entirely separate modes. In "native" mode, it doesn't care which X
fonts are installed -- so the rxvt package as a whole must not require:
anything X-related. In "X11" mode, obviously rxvt depends on a lot of
xorg-x11-* packages. One of those -- xorg-x11-fscl -- happens to be an
optional component of X11, and contains the bitstream fonts. But again,
because of the "native" mode issue, the rxvt package itself can't
require: xorg-x11-fscl without also indirectly require:ing all of X11.
This would seriously inconvenience rxvt users who only use it in native
mode.
Gack.
I suppose I could change the default to use (ugh) Courier fixed (as
opposed to scalable), which would "fix" the issue for people running in
X11 mode with "incomplete" X11 installations. Ugly ugly ugly. This
sucks. This would technically fix the native issue, as well, but it
would be REALLY ugly: there IS a windows font called "courier" -- but it
is a bitmapped non-TrueType font.
I want to show off a good-looking rxvt, not a least-common-denominator
bag-over-the-head-ugly rxvt.
However, for "native" mode? I can't /really/ fix that, if you insist on
relying on undocumented default behavior. The recommended method of
starting rxvt in native mode is to always specify a font (and explicitly
force native display mode), using windows not x11 naming convention. E.g.
rxvt -display :0 -fn "Lucida Console-16"
in which case any font specifications in ~/.Xdefaults or
/etc/X11/app-defaults are overidden. From the README (although I admit
it is rather buried. I need to rewrite it):
=====================================================================
(1) In ~/.Xdefaults, set whatever font you like for X usage. He prefers
Rxvt*font: -*-bitstream vera sans
mono-medium-r-normal--*-130-*-*-m-*-iso8859-1
Rxvt*boldfont: -*-bitstream vera sans
mono-bold-r-normal--*-130-*-*-m-*-iso8859-1
(2) In the shortcut for starting rxvt in X mode, use this command string
C:\cygwin\bin\run.exe /usr/bin/rxvt.exe -display 127.0.0.1:0.0 \
-tn rxvt-cygwin -e /usr/bin/bash --login -i
(3) In the shortcut for starting rxvt in Native mode, use this
command string
C:\cygwin\bin\run.exe /usr/bin/rxvt.exe -display :0 \
-fn "Lucida ConsoleP-16" -tn rxvt-cygwin-native -e /usr/bin/bash --login -i
=====================================================================
If you *KNOW* you will never use rxvt in X mode, then you can edit
/etc/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt (or ~/.Xdefaults) to specify the desired
native font:
rxvt*font: -outline-Courier
New-normal-r-normal-normal-20-96-120-120-c-100-iso8859-1
(note "Courier New" -- the windows name -- not "courier" -- the X11 name)
Or, you could install the free bitstream fonts into C:/WINDOWS/Fonts/
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/ttf-bitstream-vera/1.10/
and things would "Just Work"(tm) in native mode without further changes.
(Although I realize some corporate environments don't allow users to
install Windows fonts).
--
Chuck
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