Customizing ITEX (on UNIX)

This chapter describes how to customize ITEX on UNIX. You can, for example, find information about how resources are read and how to customize key and button bindings.

The chapter does not contain information about how to configure the help environment. You can read about that in Customizing the On-Line Help.

Note:  UNIX version It is only possible to customize ITEX on UNIX with the facilities described in this chapter.

Table of Contents 

• Customizing ITEX
• How Resources Are Read
• Customizing Key and Button Bindings
• Itex*XmText.translations
• Itex*textWindow*XmText.translations
• Itex.browser*node.translations
• Itex.nodeTranslations
• Itex.editor.headerFields.overrideTranslations
• Itex.editor.rowFields.overrideTranslations
• Itex.editor.fieldEditor.overrideTranslations
• Other Customizations
• Change of Paper Size
• Change of Font Size in Editor
• Change of the Header/Footer
• Change of Font Family
• Changing Relative Widths of Columns in Editor
• Hiding and Showing the Browser Toolbar
• Configuring the Help Environment

Customizing ITEX

ITEX is an Xt based application (X11R5). Customizing is done by setting resources in the normal way for Xt applications. The default configuration is given in the file
$telelogic/X11/app-defaults/Itex¹. This file should be installed as part of the installation of ITEX.

Most of the resources in the global resource file for ITEX should never be overridden.

The resources that are most likely to be changed, will be mentioned in this chapter. For examples on how to set the resources see the file Itex.sample in the installation directory $telelogic/itex.

Note:  UNIX only Customizing ITEX is only possible on UNIX.

How Resources Are Read

At start-up, resources are read from a number of files in the standard way for Xt applications. There are a number of environment variables that control the way the program looks for resource files:

• XFILESEARCHPATH
• XUSERFILESEARCHPATH
• XAPPLRESDIR
• XENVIRONMENT

When ITEX is started, none of the environment variables above need to be set. ITEX will automatically find the resource file under the default name $telelogic/itex/X11lib/app-defaults/Itex.

To override some of the resources in the global resource file there are several possibilities:

• Give command line arguments to ITEX (see the man page itex).
• Set the environment variable XENVIRONMENT to a file containing resources for ITEX, or create a file $HOME/.Xdefaults-<host>.
• Set the value of the RESOURCE_MANAGER property with the program xrdb, or create a file $HOME/.Xdefaults.

The easiest way to set some personal resources is to create a file
.Xdefaults in the home directory and add these resources to it.

For a more detailed description of how resources are found in an Xt based application see some suitable book on the subject, for example the X Toolkit Intrinsics Programming Manual from O'Reilly & Associates.

Customizing Key and Button Bindings

Key bindings are accomplished by translations in the resource file of ITEX. The translation tables that are relevant to add/change in are:

Itex*XmText.translations

Affect all places where text is edited in ITEX, for example rename of node in Browser and editing of field in the Table Editor. It is here the Emacs-like editing keys are defined.

Itex*textWindow*XmText.translations

Affect only key bindings in log windows. This is, by default, defined to contain the same key bindings as above but with the addition of a few bindings that have to do with scrolling.

Itex.browser*node.translations

Most of the keys in the Browser are defined here.

Itex.nodeTranslations

Some keys for traversing the Browser tree are defined here.

Itex.editor.headerFields.overrideTranslations

Defines the bindings available when focus is on a header field in the Table Editor.

Itex.editor.rowFields.overrideTranslations

Defines the bindings available when focus is on a body field in the Table Editor.

Itex.editor.fieldEditor.overrideTranslations

Defines editor specific bindings when editing a field in the Table Editor.

In the resource file there are comments that describe the action functions that can be used in translation tables. Changes to these tables must be done with caution, since much of the functionality of ITEX depend on these translations being set in a reasonable way.

Other Customizations

The following is a list of miscellaneous customizations. For examples, see the file Itex.sample in the installation directory $telelogic/itex.

Change of Paper Size

By default, the printout will be in A4 format. Other formats supported are Letter, Tabloid and Legal. For all formats it is possible to choose between portrait and landscape mode. The default is portrait mode.
See the file Itex.sample for an example.

Change of Font Size in Editor

By default, the font size used in fields in the Table Editor is 10 screen points. The same size is used in printouts. It is possible to change the size of the Table Editor on the screen, without changing the paper size.
See the file Itex.sample for an example.

Change of the Header/Footer

By default, the header consists of the string "ITEX 3.5", the document name and the string "user name @ host name". It is possible to change the header and the footer.
See the file Itex.sample for an example.

Change of Font Family

By default, all text is from the Helvetica family. You can change this to another family supported by both X11 and Postscript (for example Times).
See the file Itex.sample for an example.

Changing Relative Widths of Columns in Editor

The total width of a table is divided among all columns. You can control this by specifying how wide different columns should be. It can be specified individually for each table type.
See the file Itex.sample for an example.

Hiding and Showing the Browser Toolbar

If you set the resource entry Itex*browser.enableToolBar to False, it is possible to hide the tool bar in the Browser window.

Configuring the Help Environment

The Help environment is configured via the Preference Manager, see Customizing the On-Line Help.