Re: Xresources for Mathematica
- To: mathgroup@smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg10934] Re: Xresources for Mathematica
- From: "P.J. Hinton" <paulh@wolfram.com>
- Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 00:46:19 -0500
- Organization: Wolfram Research, Inc.
- References: <6bumjr$l8e@smc.vnet.net>
On 12 Feb 1998, Pedro N. Safier wrote: > I am using Mathematica 3.0 in a Unix box. > > I am wondering how do I change the X resources (in the .Xdefaults file) > to change the widget appearance (size, menu background etc,) The Mathematica X front end has a multitude of resource settings. You can set specific resources in your .Xdefaults file, but they must be entered properly so that they are associated with Mathematica. A good place to start looking for names of resources is the XMathematica file, which resides in $TopDirectory/SystemFiles/FrontEnd/SystemResources/X where $TopDirectory is the path to the Mathematica installation (by default, /usr/local/mathematica). Let's say, for example, you wanted to change the font for the menus from Helvetica-Bold to Helvetica-Medium. In the XMathematica file, you'll find this resource: *fontList: -*-helvetica-bold-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-*-* Copy this line into your .Xdefaults file and add "XMathematica" at the beginning of the line. XMathematica*fontList: -adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-* This tells your X server that this font setting applies only to Mathematica. The XMathematica file contains most of the resources that you would ever want to change. However, you can target your settings ad absurdium using editres, an X program that will get the widget tree for an X client. A full exposition of how to use this program is beyond the scope of this newsgroup. You can find a discussion of its usage in the _X Window System User's Guide_ that's published by O'Reilly and Associates. Using editres, I was able to find the name of the resource that controls the fonts used on the Help Browser radio buttons exclusively :-): .Help Browser.FrontEnd._rowColumn.*._radio.fontList: -times-medium-r-normal--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-* John Fultz wrote an excellent article on playing around with the front end resources for the _Mathematica Journal_ a number of years ago. The article is still available in version 2..2 notebook format at URL: http://www.mathsource.com/cgi-bin/MathSource22/Enhancements/FrontEnd/X/0206-053 Much of it is still relevant for version 3.0. -- P.J. Hinton Mathematica Programming Group paulh@wolfram.com Wolfram Research, Inc. http://www.wolfram.com/~paulh/ Disclaimer: Opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone.