Frequently asked questions regarding Xedit on the UK Unix Platforms

• Q: Which UK Unix systems have Xedit available?
• A: Xedit is available on the CCSTAT HP K460 as well as the HP/Convex SPP Exemplar. Version 2.x can be run in both a character mode or with an X-11 GUI interface (see below).

• Q: How do I start xedit?
• A: x, xe, or xedit will work.

• Q: When I try to start xedit, nothing happens, it just sits there with no messages.
• A: When you start xedit version 2.x or higher, it can operate in one of two modes - character mode or a graphical X-Windows mode. It determines which mode to use by looking at your DISPLAY environment variable. If the DISPLAY variable is set to point to an X-Windows display it will try to start the graphical interface. If you are not using an X-Windows display you won't see anything.

  Normally, the DISPLAY variable should only be set if you are logging in from an X-Windows capable terminal. However, you could possibly have your DISPLAY variable hard-coded in your profile and experience the behavior described above when starting xedit from a character-based terminal. You can force xedit to start in character mode by giving the -C flag at startup or unset your DISPLAY variable.

• Q: Can I customize xedit through the use of a profile file, etc?
• A: The profile for Uni-Xedit is the file .profile.xedit. The default profile is copied to your home directory the first time you run xedit. Note that since this is a "dot" file, it will not show up with an ls without using the "-a" flag.

  You can edit this file and customize it with the normal xedit commands. If you want to make a copy of your profile while you test your changes, you can tell xedit to load the new profile with:

  xe -prof .profile.xedit.new filename

  After you have confirmed your changes, you can rename your old one and copy the new one to .profile.xedit

  
  

• Q: Why don't my function keys work with Unix Xedit?
• A: There is nothing on the host running Xedit that prevents the F-keys from working (assuming your default .profile.xedit has not been modified). If they are not working in a particular case, it is because your terminal emulator software (e.g. McGill telnet, or other communications software) on your computer is not sending the proper F-key codes (escape sequences). Some terminal emulators can be configured to send the proper codes and some can't. This is discussed in more detail below.
  • Windows 3.1
  • Windows95
  • Macintosh

• Q: Is there any helpful information from the software vendor?
• A: Xedit Frequently Asked Questions from the vendor

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