Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 07:08:13 -0500 (CDT) From: none <noone@siu.edu> To: ports@FreeBSD.org Subject: the-3.1 port suggestion (with JPEG attachment) Message-ID: <200306111208.h5BC8DbF090348@freebsd2.localnet10>
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--0-1804289383-1055333299=:90347 Content-Type: TEXT/plain; charset=us-ascii I have been using IBM's Xedit editor, and various incarnations, for nearly 20 years, and am - ummm - somewhat abhored by the "basic" THE installation which results in a old DOS-like editor. I realize that this is the way that the package "comes". Attached is a snapshot, "THE-3.1.true_IBM_appearance.jpg", of an "advanced" installation that uses Xcurses (PDCurses-2.6), and makes THE look just like the traditional IBM Xedit editor. I would like to suggest that the FreeBSD the-3.1 port installation be modified to either offer this "advanced" version of THE as comments ala java, or as makefile options, or by default (best). While it is possible that some people may be more familiar with KEDIT, it is easy to provide for an XEDIT-like installation. PDCurses is available from the same site as is THE. Its README file mentions, The core curses package is Public Domain, but small portions of this package are subject to various copyright conditions. Each directory in this package contains a README file. In each of these README files is a section titled "Distribution Status" which describes the distribution status of the files within that directory. and the THE-3.1/x11/README states, The files in this directory are copyright Mark Hessling 1995-2000. This source code made be used without restriction when used with the PDCurses library. Any other use of this source code requires written permission of the author, Mark Hessling (M.Hessling@qut.edu.au). I would think that it would be possible to provide either PDCurses as a FreeBSD port outright, or a port like java which requires the user to download the source (where there is no authorization/agreement required) to avoid any possible copyright entanglements, and then install it. If this is not acceptable, then it would at least be nice to add make comments like many other ports which offer specific feature options that a user can select or act upon, independently. I realize that not changing anything about the FreeBSD the-3.1 port would be the simplest thing to do, but it is also a real waste of the THE application to leave the user with such a difficult editor to use, in its "default installation mode". Simply changing the "--with-ncurses" CONFIGURE argument to "--with-xcurses" will be sufficient to provide the more advanced THE gui. I usually also add "--with-xaw3d", but I don't believe that it is strictly required. The only other note about the advanced THE interface is the use of two lines in a user's .Xresources file to set the font size ala, the.normalFont: 10x20 the.boldFont: 10x20 The current FreeBSD the-3.1 port already is linked to rexx-imc-1.76, which is a very good REXX implementation (I have also used REXX for nearly 20 years on IBM mainframes, Amiga, and Unix). Now I would like to see this port linked to PDCurses (xcurses), or at least offer the user some make comments about them pre-installing PDCurses beforehand, to obtain the "advanced" THE interface. Thank you. --0-1804289383-1055333299=:90347--
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