Have been using Xnedit under FreeBSD 12 for a while now, a welcome update to nedit. Compiled out of the box and is rock solid. Working on an os project that will need a Linux version, so installed Debian Bookworm, a few added packages and Xnedit bulds with no warnings or errors. A few issues so far:
1) Rectangular cut and paste produces undefined but localised select sections on screen
2) Starts up with offscreen column width, to the right
3) Setting and saving defaults has issues, part works, but not for initial window column width, at least.
4) Cursor is an odd shape, compared to the FreeBSD version
5) Fonts don't look anything like as good as on the FreeBSD version
I need to build this on Linux and Debian was the goto distro years ago, but will try Mint / xfce4 later this week. Linux does seem to have changed a lot since last used years ago and such issues are a bit of a surprise after the robustness of FreeBSD and older Linux such as Suse 11.4. Any ideas welcome and can post more info to help debug this...
Regards,
Chris
Last edit: Chris Quayle 2023-07-06
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That is all related to the same font problem. With some fonts, the character width was not detected correctly. I fixed this a while ago, but it is not in any release yet. You should try the newest version from git.
If you are already using the newest version from git, I can test this on Debian myself. As a workaround, you can try different fonts, DejaVu Sans Mono seems to work.
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Thanks for the reply. Spent today doing a few installs of Linux, to try and find a good one.
* Linux Mint / xfce, which looks good, but package dependency errors. No ability to log in as root and other issues.
* Fedora workstation, which came up with rubbish onscreen on reboot, unuseable
* Devuan Linux Chimaera 4.0.0, which works fine, a non systemd fork of Debian. Needed the following packages installed to build xnedit:
make (gnu make)
gcc, which pulls in binutils etc
libmotif-dev, which pulls in a load of X related stuff
libxpm-dev
libpcre-dev
It builds with no errors or warniings and seems to work perfectly, just as the FreeBSD build. Good clear fonts, cursor, rectangular cut & paste and syntax highlighting, all seem to be working perfectly.
Is it just me, or have the modern systemd based Linux distros gone way beyond their ability ?. Great windows replacement, but flaky at the edges and no good for development work ?...
Regards,
Chris
Last edit: Chris Quayle 2023-07-06
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Text rendering should be the same on all platforms. XNEdit uses libxft, which internally uses the X rendering extension. The only big difference between different distributions is the default font configuration.
In my experience, linux with systemd works fine. I'm using both FreeBSD and Fedora, and for me both works.
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Thanks. Just tried rebulding on Debian again, with the same issues..
uname -a says:
Linux m73-deb12 6.1.0-9-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.27-1 (2023-05-08) x86_64 GNU/Linux
Xnedit Build Summary says:
Built on: Linux, x86-64, GNU C
Built at: Jul 7 2023, 14:32:56
With Motif: (Untested) 2.3.8 [@(#)Motif Version 2.3.8]
Running Motif: 2.3 [unknown]
Server: The X.Org Foundation 12101007
Visual: 24-bit TrueColor (ID 0x21, Default)
Locale: en_GB.UTF-8
Using xfce desktop
Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help , testing, whatever...
Regards,
Chris
Last edit: Chris Quayle 2023-07-07
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XNedit 1.4.1
Jul 10, 2022
Built on: Linux, x86-64, GNU C
Built at: Jul 7 2023, 14:32:56
With Motif: (Untested) 2.3.8 [@(#)Motif Version 2.3.8]
Running Motif: 2.3 [unknown]
Server: The X.Org Foundation 12101007
Visual: 24-bit TrueColor (ID 0x21, Default)
Locale: en_GB.UTF-8
Thanks, will wait for the formal release. Great editor anyway, using the old nedit since the early ninties fwir, and still the best programmers editor. The only other point is the file load window, where the double click needs to be very fast to work. Carry over from the old nedit, no doubt...
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Just downloaded 1.5 and built under Debian Bookworm. All seems ok: Correct window size, fonts, syntax highlighting and cursor. Will give it a bit more exercise this week, but thanks for the fix and also the tip about motif, which also works...
Regards,
Chris
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Have been using Xnedit under FreeBSD 12 for a while now, a welcome update to nedit. Compiled out of the box and is rock solid. Working on an os project that will need a Linux version, so installed Debian Bookworm, a few added packages and Xnedit bulds with no warnings or errors. A few issues so far:
1) Rectangular cut and paste produces undefined but localised select sections on screen
2) Starts up with offscreen column width, to the right
3) Setting and saving defaults has issues, part works, but not for initial window column width, at least.
4) Cursor is an odd shape, compared to the FreeBSD version
5) Fonts don't look anything like as good as on the FreeBSD version
I need to build this on Linux and Debian was the goto distro years ago, but will try Mint / xfce4 later this week. Linux does seem to have changed a lot since last used years ago and such issues are a bit of a surprise after the robustness of FreeBSD and older Linux such as Suse 11.4. Any ideas welcome and can post more info to help debug this...
Regards,
Chris
Last edit: Chris Quayle 2023-07-06
That is all related to the same font problem. With some fonts, the character width was not detected correctly. I fixed this a while ago, but it is not in any release yet. You should try the newest version from git.
If you are already using the newest version from git, I can test this on Debian myself. As a workaround, you can try different fonts, DejaVu Sans Mono seems to work.
Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Spent today doing a few installs of Linux, to try and find a good one.
* Linux Mint / xfce, which looks good, but package dependency errors. No ability to log in as root and other issues.
* Fedora workstation, which came up with rubbish onscreen on reboot, unuseable
* Devuan Linux Chimaera 4.0.0, which works fine, a non systemd fork of Debian. Needed the following packages installed to build xnedit:
make (gnu make)
gcc, which pulls in binutils etc
libmotif-dev, which pulls in a load of X related stuff
libxpm-dev
libpcre-dev
It builds with no errors or warniings and seems to work perfectly, just as the FreeBSD build. Good clear fonts, cursor, rectangular cut & paste and syntax highlighting, all seem to be working perfectly.
Is it just me, or have the modern systemd based Linux distros gone way beyond their ability ?. Great windows replacement, but flaky at the edges and no good for development work ?...
Regards,
Chris
Last edit: Chris Quayle 2023-07-06
Nice to hear that it is working.
Text rendering should be the same on all platforms. XNEdit uses libxft, which internally uses the X rendering extension. The only big difference between different distributions is the default font configuration.
In my experience, linux with systemd works fine. I'm using both FreeBSD and Fedora, and for me both works.
Thanks. Just tried rebulding on Debian again, with the same issues..
uname -a says:
Linux m73-deb12 6.1.0-9-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.27-1 (2023-05-08) x86_64 GNU/Linux
Xnedit Build Summary says:
Built on: Linux, x86-64, GNU C
Built at: Jul 7 2023, 14:32:56
With Motif: (Untested) 2.3.8 [@(#)Motif Version 2.3.8]
Running Motif: 2.3 [unknown]
Server: The X.Org Foundation 12101007
Visual: 24-bit TrueColor (ID 0x21, Default)
Locale: en_GB.UTF-8
Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help , testing, whatever...
Regards,
Chris
Last edit: Chris Quayle 2023-07-07
Can you post the xnedit version (first line in Help -> Version)?
With Motif: (Untested) 2.3.8 [@(#)Motif Version 2.3.8]
Running Motif: 2.3 [unknown]
Server: The X.Org Foundation 12101007
Visual: 24-bit TrueColor (ID 0x21, Default)
Locale: en_GB.UTF-8
Last edit: Chris Quayle 2023-07-07
As I said, try the newest code from the git repository. The bug should be fixed there.
Or you can wait until I release xnedit 1.5, my plan is to release it this weekend.
Thanks, will wait for the formal release. Great editor anyway, using the old nedit since the early ninties fwir, and still the best programmers editor. The only other point is the file load window, where the double click needs to be very fast to work. Carry over from the old nedit, no doubt...
The double click speed should be the same in all motif based applications. It can be changed with the multiClickTime resource. The default is 200 ms.
For example, the following command changes the multi click time to 500ms:
echo "*multiClickTime: 500" | xrdb -mergeXNEdit 1.5.0 is now available. I have tested it on Debian and the default monospace font Noto Sans Mono Regular now works.
Hi,
Just downloaded 1.5 and built under Debian Bookworm. All seems ok: Correct window size, fonts, syntax highlighting and cursor. Will give it a bit more exercise this week, but thanks for the fix and also the tip about motif, which also works...
Regards,
Chris
Another positive: 1.5 builds and runs fine on current version of cygwin and X, running xfce4...