[ale] displays

[Steven A DuChene]

On Thu, Nov 26, 1998 at 02:51:07PM -0500, Marc Vogt wrote:
> All this display stuff reminded me of a question that I've had for
> a while.  When you export a display as described previously, 
> sometimes the application is too big for the way you have your screen
> set up (640x480 with 800x600 for my little laptop).  How can you 
> change the size of the application exteriorly ( that is without
> configuring the ap itself)?  Can you just use something like
> 'swallow'?  Any tips appreciated.

This pretty simple to do but I'm not sure if the results will be what
you're looking for. When you start the application if it writen correctly
it should respond to a "-geometry" command line option. For instance
I started xpdf (Adobe PDF file viewer) window in a 100 by 150 size
with the following syntax:

xpdf -geometry 100x150

It just depends on the application if this will work or not. Basically
it has to use some standard X calls when it was written.

Also you might want to experiment with smaller fonts when your opening
up a smaller window. To do this you would use a "-fn" command line
option. Again it will depend on the application, if and how it responds
to the different font specification. This "-fn" option typically is used
to specify a different font to use for displaying text in the application.
It may or may not have the effect you desire on all your applications since
the widgets that make up the application GUI may not all resize correctly
or at all.
-- 
Steve DuChene              sad at ale.org