The hyper-FAQ (Release 1.8) was marked-up from the original text-version using Emacs' massively useful macro-facility (and thus the conversion was painlessly automated) and the html-mode package.
The plain-text version of this FAQ is now generated from the hyper-FAQ, with the html-to-ascii perl-script written by James R. Davis.
The hyper-FAQ is updated when I have the time. The text version of this FAQ is posted to comp.windows.x.apps and uploaded to the archive on or about the 15th of every month; the hyper-FAQ will always be the most up-to-date version. Additions, corrections, criticisms, marriage proposals and other suggestions are welcome and encouraged (especially marriage proposals); please email them to the maintainer of this FAQ: <elf@ee.ryerson.ca>.
With the release of R6, the H U G E collection of clients in R5contrib is considered "old" (although they will still work with R4 & R5 servers). The file 0ftpxorg.dir, maintained by Daniel S. Lewart, is a concerted attempt at organizing the plethora of packages available. It contains descriptions of the more popular (and sometimes obscure) packages.
If you cannot connect to ftp.x.org, you may wish to try a mirror:
Mirrors of the X
Consortium's archive:
ftp.x.org:/pub/R6untarred/xc/programs
and clients contributed by others, in:
ftp.x.org:/pub/R6untarred/contrib/programs.
The complete R6 distribution, including contibuted clients, is also available on CD-ROM. Information on purchasing the CD-ROM is available in the file:
Please use the geographically closest one:
The Sunsite archive is at: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/
(Op-Ed: If at all possible, try not to ftp large packages during prime-time (08:00 - 18:00 ftp-site local-time) so as not to load-down the computing resources at the sites that graciously make these facilities available. Also, try to use a ftp-server that is geographically near your own site.
Now, I don't expect everyone to stay-up past their bed-time just to ftp a package in the middle of the night. I have some nifty shell-scripts to perform unattended ftp'ing using cron(1). If anyone wants a copy of these scripts, mail me a note and I will mail them off to you) or you can download them directly from here (21K shar-file).
GNU
Emacs, an extensible, customizable real-time display editor, is The
One True Editor. It was developed and is maintained by Richard
Stallman. It offers true Lisp--smoothly integrated into the
editor--for writing extensions, and provides an interface to the X
Window System (it works equally well on a dumb-terminal (VT100,
etc.)). In addition to its powerful native command set, extensions which emulate other popular editors (vi, EDT (DEC's VMS editor) Wordstar, and Gosling (aka Unipress) Emacs) are distributed. An extermely short list of features making emacs a full computing-support environment include: pull-down menus, multiple fonts, multiple windows with multiple views into the same file, on-the-fly syntax highliting for various languages including C.
Users seeking help or guidance with using or installing Emacs can post queries (after consulting the GNU Emacs FAQ (please!)) to gnu.emacs.help (a mailing-list gatewayed to USENET), comp.emacs.xemacs and comp.emacs. (alt.religion.emacs offers support for the truly devout seeking enlightenment.)
User contributed additions in the form of LISP packages (games (tetris), PIM's, databases, calendars, mailers, etc.) are available from the definitive LISP archive:
archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/
GNU Emacs (or sometimes, a less feature-laden derivative) is available for ever system on this earth; the latest version of GNU Emacs is 19.29 and (along with other GNU utilities) is available for ftp at various GNU archive sites around the world.
das.wang.com:/ftp/wjs/gnu/emacs
Binaries (built with R5 Athena Widgets) are avilable for:
XEmacs 19.13, formerly Lucid
Emacs 19.10, developed by Jamie Zawinski, is
derived from GNU Emacs version 19. Pre-compiled binaries are
available for most popular platforms; the reader is encouraged to
check-out the XEmacs home-page for details about
the specific files to retrive. Some of its popular features include:
Since cs.uiuc.edu has a 20-user limit on ftp connections, you are advised to get it from one of the following mirror sites:
The latest version of aXe, 6.1.2, is avaliable for ftp from:
ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/editors/ aXe-6.1.2.tar.Z
xcoral, developed by Lionel Fournigault, Bruno
Pages and Dominique Leveque is a multi-window text editor. It
features:
The latest version of xcoral, 2.4, is available for ftp at:
ftp.inria.fr:/X/contrib-R5/clients/xcoral-2.4.tar.Z
bode.ee.ualberta.ca:/pub/unix/HPUX/hpux9/Editors/
dutiws.twi.tudelft.nl:/pub/other_sites/dutepp0/Unix/Editors/
ftp.csis.dit.csiro.au:/pub/SEG/jon/
lune.csc.liv.ac.uk:/hpux9/Editors/
Version 1.3 of asedit (International Free Release) is available for ftp from:
ftp.x.org:/contrib/editors/asedit-1.3.tar.Z
src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/packages/X11-contrib/editors/asedit-1.3.tar.Z
ftp.aud.alcatel.com:/tcl/docs/tcl-faq.part04.gz
sam was developed as an editor for use by programmers, and tries to join the styles of the Unix text editor ed(1) with that of interactive cut and paste editors by providing a comfortable mouse-driven interface to a program with a solid command-language driven by regular expressions.
sam extends the regular expression paradigm beyond line-oriented ASCII files by introducing "structural regular expressions", which can partition a file into arbitrary textual units.
sam supports the UTF-8 file-format-- an 8-bit encoding of the 16 bit Unicode character set which has nice properties like ASCII being preserved. This feature allows sam to simultaneously represent multiple languages in a single file. Although full Unicode support is unavailable, sam's flexibility with international text is still beyond that of most text editors.
The latest version of sam is available for ftp from:
wily
(The Wile E. Interface), developed by Gary Capell, provides much
of the feel of Acme, the Plan 9 editor. Wily (and acme(1))
integrates some of the functions of editor, window manager, file
browser and shell, as well as providing an interface for external
programs such as mail and news readers.
The latest version of wily, is available at:
http://www.cs.su.oz.au/~gary/hobby/wily/wily.tgz
vile/xvile, (VI Like Emacs), developed by Paul Fox,
is a vi workalike put together from Micro-Emacs. It works in an xterm
(vile) and as a true X client (xvile). vile features:
xvile features all the features of vile and additionally:
vile and xvile build (for for VAX (VMS & alpha)) from the same package; the latest version, 5.2, is available for ftp at:
There's also a pre-built DOS executable (vile52b.zip) available (requires a 386 or better). The author maintains a mailing list; if you wish to be added to the list, send email to <pgf@foxharp.boston.ma.us>.
Nedit features:
ftp.fnal.gov:/pub/nedit/v3_1_1/nedit_source.tar.Z
ftp.x.org:/contrib/editors/nedit/nedit_source.tar.Z
Pre-built binaries for the mentioned architectures are available in:
ftp.fnal.gov:/pub/nedit/v3_1_1
ce is available for IBM AIX, Hewlett-Packard HP-UX, Sun SunOS & Solaris, HP Apollo Domain/OS, DEC OSF/1 & Ultrix, SGI IRIX, and Linux.
Evaluation binaries, that normally expire 30-60 days after downloading (see the README file for more details), are available for various platforms, at:
ftp://ftp.std.com/ftp/vendors/ETG/
Gnus 5.0 (threaded)
if you have Emacs 19.25+ or XEmacs (toolbar support is included), developed
by Lars Magne
Ingebrigtsen.Gnus 5.0 is designed to be a drop-in replacement, and thus fully compatible, with GNUS 4.x (developed by Masanobu UMEDA). Almost all key bindings have been kept. More key bindings have been added, of course, but only in one or two obscure cases have old bindings been changed.
Additional Gnus 5.0 Resources, like the Gnus FAQ, mailing-list archive, etc. are also available.
Gnus 5.0 features:
Gnus is available at:
xrn (not threaded) is a
NNTP-based newsreader, developed by Ellen M. Sentovich & Rick
L. Spickelmier (now maintained by Jonathan I. Kamens), is based on rn
(a termcap-based news-reader written by the reverend Larry Wall); it
is popular with novice users and looks rather elegant when compiled
with the 3D Athena Widgets developed by formidable Kaleb
Keithley. The latest version 8.00, is available for ftp from:
ftp://ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/xrn/xrn-8.00.tgz
ftp://remote-access.cam.ov.com:/pub/xrn/xrn.tgz
A mailing-list dedicated to announcements of new releases and bugs can be subscribed to by sending mail to <xrn-users-request@cam.ov.com>.
The latest version is 6.18, but 6.17 seems to be the only one widely available for ftp at the following sites:
geocub.greco-prog.fr:/pub/X11/mxrn.tar.Z
sun.soe.clarkson.edu:/pub/src/mxrn/
xvnews (not
threaded) is a simple, intuitive Open-LOOK compliant NNTP-based
newsreader that uses the XView libraries. The latest release, 2.3, is available for ftp from:
ftp.twi.tudelft.nl:/pub/news/xvnews-2.3.tar.gz
ftp.uu.net:/networking/news/readers/xvnews/xvnews-2.3.tar.gz.
Netscape is available from the Mosaic Comm. home-page at:
or via ftp at:
nn-tk, developed by Toivo Pedaste, is based on the NN newsreader (NN
commands should still work). nn-tk provides a GUI interface with
command menus and buttons, the use of the mouse to select articles, a
scrolling panel for displaying articles and group selection using
either of scrolling panel or cascading menus. Support for MIME
messages if EXMH is installed. The latest version is available for ftp from:
ftp.uwa.edu.au:/pub/nn/contrib/nn-tk.beta.12.1.tar.gz
ftp.aud.alcatel.com:/tcl/code/tknews.1.2b.tar.gz
ftp.aud.alcatel.com:/tcl/code/artcls.tar.gz
xxgdb is an
X front-end to the gdb debugger. Some people prefer using gdb through
this front-end rather than via the command-line. xdbx is an X
front-end to the the popular dbx(1) debugger; xxgdb, xdbx, etc. are
available for ftp from:
ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/utilities/xxgdb-1.11.tar.gz
ftp://bash.cc.keio.ac.jp/pub/mirror/X11-contrib/R5/xxgdb.108.tar.gz
colonsay.dcs.ed.ac.uk:/export/X11R5/Misc-contrib/xdbx
colonsay.dcs.ed.ac.uk:/export/X11R5/Misc-contrib/mxgdb
ups is
another source-level C debugger, developed by Mark Russell, that runs
either under X or Sunview (which is rather irrelevant now). It also
comes with its own theme song! Ups includes a C interpreter which
allows you to add fragments of code simply by editing them into the
source window (the source file itself is not modified). This lets you
add debugging printf calls without recompiling, relinking
(or even restarting) the target program. ups is available for ftp from:
ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/ups-2.45.2.tar.Z
The theme-song is available from:
ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/ups-song.au
The latest version, 1.1, is available for ftp from:
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/debuggers/tgdb-1.1.src.tgz
Pre-built binaries are available from:
ftp://ftp.aud.alcatel.com/tcl/code/tgdb-1.1.src.tgz
ddd,
developed by the DDD Development Team, is a Motif user interface to
gdb and dbx which, features:
ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/utilities/ddd-1.2.tar.gz
Pre-compiled binaries (for Sun, Linux, etc.) are available for ftp from:
ftp://ftp.ips.cs.tu-bs.de/pub/local/softech/ddd/bin/
xwpe, developed by Fred Kruse, is a programming environment similar
to the Borland C++ or Turbo Pascal IDE; the difference being that,
unlike the Borland IDE, different compilers and linkers may be
invoked. It features, among other things:
xwpe can also be used as a simple editor (when run as 'xwe') without the programming environment, and may be run under vt100 terminals as 'we'.
The latest version, 1.4.2, is available for ftp at:
ftp://softdis.rrzn.uni-hannover.de/pub/systems/unix/xwpe/xwpe-1.4.2.tar.Z
There are several popular calendar packages with more features than the standard calendar client xcalendar.
xcal, written by Peter Collinson, is an interactive calendar program,
meant as a companion to the xclock program. It features:
xkal, developed by George Ferguson, is a graphical appointment
calendar that allows you to maintain many types of reminders (system,
personal (with colour-coded criticality levels)), displays them in
several different formats, and allows you to add and edit them.
Silent and non-graphic modes are provided to allow xkal to be used to
check for appointments without interaction. The latest version, 1.20, is available at:
ftp://ftp.uni-trier.de/pub/unix/X11/R5/contrib/clients/xkal/xkal-1.20.tar.Z
ical, developed
by Sanjay Ghemawat, is a calendar manager featuring:
Release 2.0 of ical is designed to work with Tk4.0. If you are using older versions of Tcl/Tk, you will need to upgrade.
See the Appendix, for information about obtaining Tcl/Tk.
The latest version of ical can be ftp'd from:
ftp.aud.alcatel.com:/tcl/code/ical-2.0.tar.gz
ftp.lcs.mit.edu:/pub/sanjay/common/ical-2.0.tar.Z
calentool, developed by Bill Randle, is a day/week/month/year-
at-glance tool. It also features recurring appointments (e.g every
Monday or every 1st & 3rd Tuesday), as well as a reminder of future
appointments. calentool also permits other user's schedules to be
accessed and also provides interesting information about the sun and
moon. The interface uses XView (2.X or 3.X) to present an Open Look style user interface (including the Help key!).
The latest version of calentool, 2.3X, is available for ftp from:
ftp.x.org:/contrib/office/calentool-2.3.tar.gz
Requires procmail, slocal, etc. for multi-user communications.
The latest version, 1.2, is available for ftp at:
ftp://avahi.inria.fr:/pub/k-lendars-1.2.tar.gz
ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/k-lendars-1.2.tar.gz
The latest version, is available for ftp at:
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/unix/graphics/plan
XDiary, developed by Roger Larsson, is a personal organizer that
combines the functions of a desktop calendar, an appointment book and
an alarm clock; it can also be used as a group calendar to plan
meetings, distribute information to specific groups etc. It
features: The latest version, 3.0 is available for ftp at:
ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/office/xmdiary-3.0.tar.gz
xfig
(Facility for Interactive Generation of figures), originally written
by Supoj Sutanthavibul, is a menu-driven drawing program that may be
used to draw and manipulate objects interactively in an X window. It
comes with a translator package (transfig, also available at
ftp.x.org) that allows xfig drawings to be converted to sundry other
formats including LaTeX, PostScript, PiCTeX, etc. xfig can also import
encapsulated PostScript files that can be annotated. xfig features
primitive objects: circles, ellipses, arcs, etc. that may be grouped
into complex objects and scaled, rotated, and manipulated in various
ways. xfig is now maintained by Brian V. Smith (he certainly answers all the queries posted); the latest version, 3.1.3, can be ftp'd from:
ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/drawing_tools/xfig/
You also need to get the TransFig package which contains the post-processor needed by xfig to convert fig files to one of several output formats.
The TransFig package is in:
ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications/drawing_tools/transfig/
tgif also supports the retrieval of tgif (obj and sym) files from HTTP servers. Hypertext jumps are supported using the old tgif teleporting or traveling mechanism.
The latest version, 2.16 pl.8, is available for ftp from:
ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/tgif/tgif-2.16-p8.tar.Z
ftp://cs.ucla.edu:/pub/tgif/tgif-2.16-p8.tar.Z
ftp://ftp.aud.alcatel.com/tcl/code/picasso3.8.tar.gz
picasso requires that the following packages be installed:
fvwm is a derivative of twm, redesigned to minimize memory consumption, provide a 3-D look (indistinguishable from Motif's mwm) and provide a simple virtual desktop.
The latest version of fvwm are available for ftp in:
ftp://spcot.sanders.com/pub/fvwm
ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/piewm.tar.Z
ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/vtwm-5.3.tar.gz
ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/olvwm4.tar.Z
You switch from one workspace to another either by clicking on a button in an optional panel of buttons (the workspace manager) or by invoking a function. Each workspace can be customize by choosing different colors, names, and pixmaps for the buttons and root windows. It also features:
The latest version of ctwm, 3.3, is available for ftp from:
ftp.x.org:/contrib/window_managers/ctwm-3.3.tar.Z
Pete Phillips maintains a Project Management Software FAQ that is posted regularily to comp.software-eng.
It is also available for ftp from:
ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/misc/proj-plan
The FAQ, reviews and glossary documents are available at:
ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/xpm3icons.tar.Z
xpaint, developed by David Koblas, is a incredibly
versatile mono-bitmap and/or colour-pixmap editing tool. It features,
among other things:
The latest version, 2.1.1, is available for ftp from: ftp://ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/xpaint-2.1.1.tar.Z
The latest version, 2.6, is available for ftp from:
ftp://ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/pixmap/pixmap2.6.tar.gz
ftp://avahi.inria.fr:/pub/pixmap/pixmap2.6.tar.gz
ediff, developed by Michael Kifer, is a visual interface to
diff and patch, accessed within emacs, that
highlights the differences between two files in color. It features:
This program's appearance is based upon a program called gdiff, available for Silicon Graphics workstations.
The latest version of mgdiff is available for ftp at:
ftp://ftp.x.org:/pub/R6untarred/contrib/Motif/mgdiff
tkdiff, developed by John Klassa, is a graphical front-end for the
standard Unix diff utility, based on Tcl/Tk. Its features include:
ftp://ftp.aud.alcatel.com/tcl/code/tkdiff-1.0b7.tar.gz
It features:
A less restrictive (wrt license), and older version, is available at:
ftp.x.org:/R5contrib/xv-2.21.tar.Z
The latest version, 2.20, is available at:
ftp://ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/xwpick2.20.tar.gz
The various tools allow:
ImageMagick is available at ftp.x.org and its mirrors:
ftp://crl.dec.com:/pub/X11/contrib/applications/ImageMagick
The latest version, 1.6 is available at:
ftp://ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/xmail_1.6.tar.gz
ftp://ftp.uni-trier.de:/pub/unix/X11/R6/xc/programs/xmh
Note that most other sites still archive the R5 version and the patches to take it up to R6.
exmh, developed by Brent Welch, is a Tcl/Tk-based (3.3 or better (but
not 4.0)) wrapper to the MH (6.7 or 6.8) mail-handling system.
The latest version, 1.5.3, is available at: ftp://parcftp.xerox.com:/pub/exmh/exmh-1.5.3.tar.Z
The following packages are also required:
ML, developed by Mike Macgirvin, is an IMAP mail client. It features, among other things:
ML requires X11R4, Motif 1.2, IMAP2bis, and optionally PGP 2.6.2.
The latest version, 1.1.1a is available at:
ftp-camis.stanford.edu:/pub/ml/ml.tar.Z
Pre-compiled binaries are available for SunOS, Solaris and linux in:
ftp-camis.stanford.edu:/pub/ml
XAnim,
developed by, Mark Podlipec, supports a variety of
animations/movies (FLI, FLC, IFF, AVI, Quicktime, MPEG,
etc.). XAnim can even play an audio file (WAV format) with an
animation that doesn't already contain audio. It has a handy
remote-control window with buttons for volume-control and
frame-stepping control.
The latest version of xanim, 2.69.7.8a, is available at:
ftp://ftp.portal.com:/pub/podlipec/xanim26978a.tar.gz
Tcl and Tk were developed by John Ousterhout, Sun Microsystems.
Tcl stands for "tool command language" and is pronounced "tickle". Tcl is actually two things: a language and a library. Tcl is a simple textual language, intended primarily for issuing commands to interactive programs such as text editors, debuggers, illustrators, and shells; it can also be used as a library package embedded in application programs.
Tk is an extension to Tcl which provides an interface to the X. Note that many users will encounter Tk via "wish", a simple windowing shell which permits the user to write Tcl applications interactively.
The latest versions of Tcl/Tk can be obtained via ftp from: