Bug#247766: tetex-bin: only the last -xrm on the command line is effective

[Stefan Ulrich <stefan-ulrich.nntp@zen.co.uk>]

Matt Swift <swift@alum.mit.edu> writes:

> But they are using "override" to describing adding a key binding without
> affecting other key bindings.

If I'm not mistaken, the `#override' is special syntax for the
translations manager, it's not related to the resource name. The
problem seems to be that the resource name
`XDvi.mainTranslations' is the same. AFAIK the case is really
parallel to the more obvious one:

xdvi -xrm "*background: green" -xrm "*background: red"

> I do not know what is on your line 1107.  Is it an override or
> a plain assignment?

sorry, should have made that clearer ... all of them are
#override (one doesn't want to replace all the default xdvi
bindings ;-)

> I don't think you should
> get a warning if it is a plain assignment (i.e., no #override).  Also I am
> not sure that -xrm and the app-specific files XDvi and the xrdb database are
> really all handled in exactly the same ways.  Is #override equivalent to
> xrdb's #override?

AFAIK yes

> Xdvi does not object if you put #anythingatall instead of
> #override (but only #override seems to have a special meaning).

But neiter does xrm, or does it? I think that's just another
instance of typos in X resources being silently ignored, like
$ xdvi -xrm 'XDvi*bozonicMode: Level3'

> In any case, I leave this up to you whether you want to leave this report
> open as a documentation bug for xdvi man page (at least mention that you
> only get one override of a resource but can combine values as in your
> example, perhaps)

But I would claim that the behaviour isn't xdvi specific, so I
think would only add clutter to the man page if we put it there.

> or reassign this to the package owning the X man page for
> clarification of what #override means.  Or just close it and figure you're
> going to have to buy a fat OReilly book to get any good documentation on any
> of this mess anyway.

I think that's the sad truth (the man page mentions various of
the books at several places.) Personally I try to avoid thinking
about the X resource mess as much as possible ...

Best,
Stefan