Re: Color Problems in IDL for Linux (Gnome)

[nobody(at)nowhere.com (Steve Smith<steven_smith>)]

On Sun, 29 Jul 2001 09:24:45 +0200, Reimar Bauer <r.bauer@fz-juelich.de> wrote:
>Sean Davis wrote:
>> 
>> Craig Markwardt wrote:
>> 
>> > Sean Davis <sdavis@nis.lanl.gov> writes:
>> > [reformatted for the bleary-eyed]
>> > > Well, I know we have all struggled with colors in IDL at one point
>> > > or another, but I am currently having a problem which is beyond the
>> > > usual frustrations people have with colors in IDL.
>> > >
>> > > Essentially, when I make a plot, the colors are in black and white
>> > > until i click on the upper-bar of the window that i'm interested
>> > > in seeing. Then, if there are any colors, the will be shown only as
>> > > long as my mouse is over the window of interest!!!
>> > >
>> > > This seems like a flaw in Gnome, because I can re-login using the
>> > > FVWM window manager and everything works fine.
>> >
>> > The answer may be that (a) you have an 8-bit display; and (b) Gnome
>> > uses up all of the colors in your color table, while FVWM does not.
>> > If your graphics card is capable, you may be able to investigate
>> > moving up to 24-bit, but you will need someone experienced in
>> > configuring your X-server.  Don't choose 16-bit or you'll be sorry.
>> >
>> 
>> Well, I do have 24-bit color so that rules that out. Maybe Gnome uses up all
>> of the colors, which still doesn't make
>> sense because the colors can be seen by me clicking on the window of
>> interest.
>> 
>
>Dear Sean,
>
>how much colors do you really have by idl.
>Please show us !d.n_colors.
>
>If you have only 256 colors then I belive you have some problems
>by your idl_startup.
>
>regards
>Reimar
>
>
>-- 
>Reimar Bauer 
>
>Institut fuer Stratosphaerische Chemie (ICG-1)
>Forschungszentrum Juelich
>email: R.Bauer@fz-juelich.de
>http://www.fz-juelich.de/icg/icg1/
>==================================================================
>a IDL library at ForschungsZentrum Juelich
>http://www.fz-juelich.de/icg/icg1/idl_icglib/idl_lib_intro.html
>
>http://www.fz-juelich.de/zb/text/publikation/juel3786.html
>==================================================================
>
>read something about linux / windows
>http://www.suse.de/de/news/hotnews/MS.html

You can pre-set the colors idl uses in .Xdefaults, I believe. Also, Gnome
is a desktop environment, not a window manager, last time I installed it.
You must be using Enlightenment or BlackBox maybe? I use Gnome / Enlightement
currently (with IDL), I used to have to put a few lines like:

#idl.colors: 16777216  <------ note this is commented out!
idl.gr_depth: 24
idl.retain: 2
idl.gr_visual: TrueColor

in .Xdefaults to get color working in X w/idl (that was using AfterStep wm).  
Most important is idl.retain, which tells IDL to handle the window's backing
-store, instead of the window manager. You may want to try that.
-- 
Steve S.

steve@NOSPAMmailaps.org
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