Bug 64251 - -font option for `xclock -digital' no workie
Summary: -font option for `xclock -digital' no workie
Status: Closed FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Ports & Packages
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Individual Port(s) (show other bugs)
Version: Latest
Hardware: Any Any
: Normal Affects Only Me
Assignee: freebsd-x11 (Nobody)
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2004-03-14 09:20 UTC by Ronald F. Guilmette
Modified: 2004-06-30 12:08 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:


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Description Ronald F. Guilmette 2004-03-14 09:20:04 UTC
On upgrading from FreeBSD 4.7 to 5.2.1, I found that the -font option for the
`xclock -digital' command is no longer functional.  It seems to be accepted,
but has no effect.  (It still works just fine on xterm however.)

This is bumming me out. :-(

Fix: 

Beats me!

The xclock man page talks about ``widgets'' and ``the clock widget'',
but I am not exactly an Xpert, so this stuff is all greek to me.  I
suppose that if I grunged around long enough, and begged for help from
the Right People, then somebody would take pity on me and enlighten me
as to which file on disk, exactly, the font for xclock needs to be
specified in.  But that is pretty much besides the point.

The point is, why doesn't the old -font command line option (for xclock)
which worked fine under FreeBSD 4.7 still work?  And if that option is
no longer accepted by xclock, then why doesn't its use produce some sort
of an error when xclock is invoked?  (It seems rather rude to accept an
option, but then just IGNORE the bloody thing.  At the very least, it is
rather unhelpful.)

Something is rotten here.

Could somebody please as least add something to the SEE ALSO portion of
the xclock man page... hopefully some helpful pointer to some other
document or man page that would enlighten idiots like me about where to
go in order to diddle the ``font resource'' for the ``Clock widget''?

(Of course, I assume that even if I _do_ diddle that, it will have a
global effect upon all instances of xclock, so maybe that ain't so
swell afetr all, and the command line -font option really should be
made to work... again.)
How-To-Repeat: 
First, do:
	xclock -digital &

Then do:
	xclock -digital -font 12x24 &

then look at both clock displays.  You will see that the font is the same
one in both cases (i.e. some default font that xclock is using).

When you have done that, then try:

	xterm &
	xterm -font 12x24 &

and you'll see that the two fonts in this case are clearly VERY different.
Comment 1 Kris Kennaway freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2004-03-16 00:30:49 UTC
Responsible Changed
From-To: freebsd-bugs->x11

Recategorize misfiled PR, and assign to maintainer.  You might have  
more luck taking this up with the XFree86 developers, though.
Comment 2 Mark Linimon freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2004-03-18 05:19:04 UTC
State Changed
From-To: open->feedback

To which port does this PR belong?
Comment 3 Mark Linimon freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2004-03-18 09:01:09 UTC
State Changed
From-To: feedback->open

Apparently the file is installed by the base package, so I 
really have no idea on how to classify this, portname-wise. 

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=64251 

Adding to the above: I finally found a machine here which would
volunteer the fact that it was installed, at least on that machine,
by x11/XFree86-4-clients.

Comment 4 martink+lists 2004-04-29 21:57:34 UTC
Apparently, some aspects of xclock(1) have changed, while its 
documentation (it seems) has not.

The correct syntax now seems to be e.g.:
    fixed-9:width=semicondensed:weight=bold
used with either the XClock*Face widget (not Font) in ~/.Xdefaults 
or ~/.Xresources, or with the '-fa' flag to xclock(1).

The following url (thank you, Google) is where I found out:
<URL:http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2004/debian-x-200403/msg02495.html>

HTH
-- 
Martin Karlsson
Comment 5 martink+lists 2004-04-30 10:48:44 UTC
* Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg@monkeys.com> [2004-04-29 15.02 -0700]:
> 
> In message <20040429205734.GA58476@bajstass.bredbandsbolaget.se>, you wrote:
> 
> >Apparently, some aspects of xclock(1) have changed, while its 
> >documentation (it seems) has not.
> >
> >The correct syntax now seems to be e.g.:
> >    fixed-9:width=semicondensed:weight=bold
> >used with either the XClock*Face widget (not Font) in ~/.Xdefaults 
> >or ~/.Xresources, or with the '-fa' flag to xclock(1).
> >
> >The following url (thank you, Google) is where I found out:
> ><URL:http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2004/debian-x-200403/msg02495.html>
> 
> Thank you for looking into this.  I do appreciate it.
> 
> However I am still at a loos to know exactly what I need to do in
> order to get an xclock display which uses the "12x24" fixed-width
> font.
> 
> Can you help me?

[Cc:ed to gnats so others can find this in the PR database]

I think so. I looked at the xclock manpage for XFree86-4.4.0 * (which is newer 
than whats in the ports tree), and found that you can use the flag '-norender' 
to xclock. With that, you should be able to use your familiar way of specifying 
the font to use.  An example:

    $ xclock -norender -d -font 12x24

I've tried it, and it works for me.

HTH

* <URL:http://www.xfree86.org/4.4.0/xclock.1.html>
-- 
Martin Karlsson
Comment 6 Volker Stolz freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2004-06-30 12:06:31 UTC
State Changed
From-To: open->closed

Should go away once XFree 4.4 gets imported. I don't think it's 
worthwhile to keep the PR around. 

Thanks to everyone who helped tracking this one down!