FVWM: 1.24r -> 2.0.42 upgrade woes

From: Barry A. Warsaw <bwarsaw_at_CNRI.Reston.VA.US>
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 20:46:40 -0400

I'm new both to fvwm and (just minutes ago) fvwm2. I'd spent the last
few days moving from ctwm to fvwm and had gotten my configuration file
(not located at ~/.fvwmrc) just about how I wanted it.

So I decided to pull down version 2 beta and run it with my version 1
config file: fvwm -f /path/to/my/fvwmrc

Whoa! Big problem! The -f command line switch has different
semantics now. I got a semi-cryptic error from fvwm saying it
couldn't exec my file. Hmm, I didn't think it should have exec
permission, but okay, I changed it anyway. Still no good. On top of
this, fvwm still starts up but with *no way* to exit it! Fortunately
I start up an XEmacs process too so I can kill fvwm.

So I guess it's time to read the manpage :-). Sure enough the -f
option should take a command instead of just a file name. However,
for backwards compatibility sake, I would suggest that -f have the
same semantics as for version 1, and that a different switch be used
for the new semantics. Also, fvwm should have some failsafe exit
mechanism that is *always* present unless specifically defeated. No
matter how early the problem in the config file is, there should be a
tidy way to exit fvwm. These things would help in the conversion
process.

Finally, I have a dual-headed SparcStation, so I tried starting up
fvwm version 1 with the -s option, on :0.0. Then I tried to start up
fvwm2 with -d :0.1 -s but it complained that another WM was running.
Once I use -s, how can I get another window manager on my second
screen?

Please! I don't mean the above to sound ungrateful. I see Chuck
Hines is the maintainer for fvwm now and that's real cool 'cause he's
contributed greatly to XEmacs. In my couple of days of hacking with
version 1 I've already kill more than one nit I had with ctwm. fvwm
is great stuff and I look forward to more glowing reports in the
future. :-) I'm really psyched about doing more integration with
Python and the module subsystem (yup, I've seen Jonathan Kelley's
fvwmmod.py -- again, cool stuff).

Thanks for letting me blow off steam!

-Barry
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Received on Mon Apr 22 1996 - 19:47:43 BST

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