Re: Linux vs Windows

[Robert Storey <y2kbug@ms25.hinet.net>]

On Sat, May 17, 2003 at 03:10:44PM -0500, Jesse Meyer wrote:
> 3) Finished GUI:  The GUI of windows software and the OS seems to be 
> more finished then linux.  A simple example would be how many linux apps 
> like to maximize so that they are larger then the displayed window
> space.

If you encounter that problem repeatedly with a particular app, you can solve it by inserting geometry settings like this in your .Xresources (or alternatively, .Xdefaults) file:

   xemacs.geometry:=104x36+0+0

If this is too big for the display, make it smaller:

   xemacs.geometry:=76x24+0+0

In the above example, the "76x24" is the size of the window that Xemacs will occupy. The "0+0" means it will open in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. You can also tweak those settings:

   xemacs.geometry:=76x24+5+12

I don't recall that M$ has any feature similar to this, but I hardly ever use it so perhaps I'm mistaken.

Whenever you find yourself in a situation where your app has maximized so that it is larger than the display and you can no longer "grab" the window frame with the mouse cursor, hold down the ALT key - you can then click anywhere in the frame and use the mouse cursor to drag the window. This is a very handy feature even when the window hasn't maximized (M$ does not have this feature). Note that in some window managers (FVWM, my personal favorite), you must use CTRL-ALT-mouse rather than ALT-mouse.

While I'm in this particular mode of thinking (or raving), have you noticed that you can cut & paste between any two windows (or even in the same window) by highlighting some text with the mouse cursor then going to the chosen spot and hitting the middle mouse button. You can even use this to paste a URL into Mozilla. Just one more feature of Xwindows that M$ lacks.

Hope this helps,
regards,
Robert