Re: [Xpert]X default fg and bg colors

[ha shao <hashao@chinese.com>]

On Fri, Jan 26, 2001 at 09:43:01PM -0500, twoerner@ica.net wrote:
> On Thursday 25 January 2001 23:53, ha shao wrote:
> > A user reported that on arm710 platform, the default foreground
> > color of an window is not set. Only background color is set.
> 
> what do you mean by "foreground colour ... is not set"? it would have 
> to be *something* even if it is garbage. is it "not set" or is it that 
> both foreground and background colours are set to white?
> 

His description is that 'text draw without set the foreground
color will not show.' I take it that the foreground color is
the same as the background color for a new window.

> my first exposure to X was using a product called MachTen several years 
> ago, which was (is) a BSD-based system. i noticed then that my 
> foreground and background colours would start off being set to white.
> 

Something like this.

> > Either the default foreground should be set or not is not important.
> > But this inconsistent behavior is very confusing both to users and
> > programmers.
> 
> although well known, most programmers don't normally rely on global 
> variables in c being zeroed. regardless of what the docs say, if you 
> want a foreground of black and a background of white it's probably 
> always safer to set them explicitly.
> 

It's true. But it is still confusing when an unsuspected user
see the same application works on one architect but not on another
one. In this case, the user spent a lot of time on X font, font 
server, endianness, alignment...to find a clue.

Either the default is set or not, the behavior should be consistent,
for all Xfree86 system or Debian system. I want to know where this
is set and if it is Debian specific.

-- 
Best regard
hashao