Xwpe FAQ

　　What is Xwpe?

　　Why a FAQ?

　　What systems does Xwpe run under?

　　Who maintains Xwpe, and where can I get more information?

　　What documentation is available?

　　Common Problems

　　What's up with the German in the source?

　　Why does Xwpe call Xlib instead of a GUI package?

　　Xwpe doesn't work with KDE. What should I do?

　　What is the long term plans for Xwpe?

　　What can I do to help the Xwpe project?

　　Who am I to write a FAQ?

　　What is Xwpe?

　　Xwpe stands for the X Windows Programming Environment. It is was written to provide an integrated development under UNIX, similar to that provided by editors like Turbo C++ (formerly made by Borland). It runs in both a text mode, and in an X window. The text editor is referred to as Wpe, or just We. It is primarily used for writing code, as it performs such basic tasks as syntax highlighting, in a small, somewhat efficient manner.Back to top...

　　Why a FAQ?

　　With Xwpe being distributed with every copy of Red Hat Linux, with newer editions becoming more functional, easier to install, Power Toolsand easier to use, and with the growing size of the Linux community, more and more people are coming to use Xwpe. And they have questions that deserve answers!Back to top...

　　What systems does Xwpe run under?

　　Xwpe is primarily developed and run under Linux. All versions are pretty much guaranteed to run under Linux, particularly Red Hat Linux. However, Xwpe has been successfully tested and ran under many other flavors of UNIX, including Solaris, AIX, IRIX, and HP-UX. If you find any bugs, please post email to the mailing list, or to the maintainer directly. See the next question.Back to top...

　　Who maintains Xwpe, and where can I get more information?

　　Xwpe is currently maintained by Dennis Payne, dulsi@identicalsoftware.com. For more information, or to obtain the newest release, refer to the website:http://www.identicalsoftware.com/xwpe/ Or you can join the Xwpe maling list by sending an email to majordomo@cs.rpi.edu with the body:

　　subscribe xwpe

　　To unsubscribe, again send a message to majordomo@cs.rpi.edu with the body:

　　unsubscribe xwpe

　　To send a message to the mailing list, email xwpe@cs.rpi.edu. You must be sending from the account you are subscribed from. You can also check out an archive of previous messages from the mailing list at:

　　http://jab.org/xwpe%40cs.rpi.edu/

　　It is a good idea to check to see if your issue has been discussed before posting to the mailing list. This is a development mailing list, as well as a general information list, so patches and other modifications may be distributed on this list.

　　Back to top...

　　What documentation is available?

　　Not much. If someone would like to write some... Refer to the webpage or this FAQ until such time as someone finds the time to do so.

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　　Common Problems

　　Why doesn't syntax highlighting work?

　　Check to be sure you ran "xwpe" and not "xwe." "xwe" invokes the X Windows Editor, not the X Windows Programming Environment. Secondly, check to make sure your file has the proper extension: for C++ files that is .C (note the capitalization); for C files: .c (again note no capitalization); for Fortran: .f; for Pascal .p; for HTML .html (available from the website as an add-on). Why these extensions and not others? Dennis likes them (and so do I, BTW), and as of now Xwpe only supports one extension per file type. This is a desired revision, for anyone who cares to fix it.

　　Update: Xwpe now supports several other extensions for certain file types, by default. Additonal extensions beyond those may be supported by listing the additional file types as shown below:

6
.C .cc .cpp .cxx .h .hpp
73
and and_eq asm auto bitand bitor bool break case catch
char class compl const const_cast continue default delete
....

　　If a number is encountered instead of period and extension, it means the syntax applies for the following number of extensions.If you wish to add more file types, you should copy the global syntax file to your local file. The global syntax definitions are usually located in /usr/lib/xwpe/syntax_def or /usr/local/lib/xwpe/syntax_def. You should create your local file in ~/.xwpe/syntax_def. Simply copy the file and make any changes you wish. Your local file will override the global settings.

　　I get an "ERROR: Illegal parameter : -c" message from my compiler. (Free Pascal, others)Xwpe assumes that the compiler you are using has an option -c, which enables multiple source files to be compiled. Some compilers, such as the Free Pascal compiler do not support this option.