--- rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.txt 2005/12/17 20:55:45 1.26 +++ rxvt-unicode/doc/rxvt.7.txt 2006/01/04 21:50:12 1.33 @@ -20,9 +20,94 @@ . FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS + Isn't rxvt supposed to be small? Don't all those features bloat? + I often get asked about this, and I think, no, they didn't cause + extra bloat. If you compare a minimal rxvt and a minimal urxvt, you + can see that the urxvt binary is larger (due to some encoding tables + always being compiled in), but it actually uses less memory (RSS) + after startup. Even with "--disable-everything", this comparison is + a bit unfair, as many features unique to urxvt (locale, encoding + conversion, iso14755 etc.) are already in use in this mode. + + text data bss drs rss filename + 98398 1664 24 15695 1824 rxvt --disable-everything + 188985 9048 66616 18222 1788 urxvt --disable-everything + + When you "--enable-everything" (which _is_ unfair, as this involves + xft and full locale/XIM support which are quite bloaty inside libX11 + and my libc), the two diverge, but not unreasnobaly so. + + text data bss drs rss filename + 163431 2152 24 20123 2060 rxvt --enable-everything + 1035683 49680 66648 29096 3680 urxvt --enable-everything + + The very large size of the text section is explained by the + east-asian encoding tables, which, if unused, take up disk space but + nothing else and can be compiled out unless you rely on X11 core + fonts that use those encodings. The BSS size comes from the 64k + emergency buffer that my c++ compiler allocates (but of course + doesn't use unless you are out of memory). Also, using an xft font + instead of a core font immediately adds a few megabytes of RSS. Xft + indeed is responsible for a lot of RSS even when not used. + + Of course, due to every character using two or four bytes instead of + one, a large scrollback buffer will ultimately make rxvt-unicode use + more memory. + + Compared to e.g. Eterm (5112k), aterm (3132k) and xterm (4680k), + this still fares rather well. And compared to some monsters like + gnome-terminal (21152k + extra 4204k in separate processes) or + konsole (22200k + extra 43180k in daemons that stay around after + exit, plus half aminute of startup time, including the hundreds of + warnings it spits out), it fares extremely well *g*. + + Why C++, isn't that unportable/bloated/uncool? + Is this a question? :) It comes up very often. The simple answer is: + I had to write it, and C++ allowed me to write and maintain it in a + fraction of the time and effort (which is a scarce resource for me). + Put even shorter: It simply wouldn't exist without C++. + + My personal stance on this is that C++ is less portable than C, but + in the case of rxvt-unicode this hardly matters, as its portability + limits are defined by things like X11, pseudo terminals, locale + support and unix domain sockets, which are all less portable than + C++ itself. + + Regarding the bloat, see the above question: It's easy to write + programs in C that use gobs of memory, an certainly possible to + write programs in C++ that don't. C++ also often comes with large + libraries, but this is not necessarily the case with GCC. Here is + what rxvt links against on my system with a minimal config: + + libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000) + libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaadde000) + libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab01d000) + /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) + + And here is rxvt-unicode: + + libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x00002aaaaabc3000) + libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002aaaaada2000) + libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00002aaaaaeb0000) + libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00002aaaab0ee000) + /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002aaaaaaab000) + + No large bloated libraries (of course, none were linked in + statically), except maybe libX11 :) + + Does it support tabs, can I have a tabbed rxvt-unicode? + rxvt-unicode does not directly support tabs. It will work fine with + tabbing functionality of many window managers or similar tabbing + programs, and its embedding-features allow it to be embedded into + other programs, as witnessed by doc/rxvt-tabbed or the upcoming + "Gtk2::URxvt" perl module, which features a tabbed urxvt (murxvt) + terminal as an example embedding application. + How do I know which rxvt-unicode version I'm using? The version number is displayed with the usage (-h). Also the escape sequence "ESC [ 8 n" sets the window title to the version number. + When using the rxvtc client, the version displayed is that of the + daemon. I am using Debian GNU/Linux and have a problem... The Debian GNU/Linux package of rxvt-unicode in sarge contains large @@ -1148,6 +1233,10 @@ h Scroll to bottom when a key is pressed l Don't scroll to bottom when a key is pressed + "Ps = 1021" (rxvt) + h Bold/italic implies high intensity (see option -is) + l Font styles have no effect on intensity (Compile styles) + "Ps = 1047" h Use Alternate Screen Buffer l Use Normal Screen Buffer - clear Alternate Screen Buffer if returning from it @@ -1197,6 +1286,7 @@ Ps = 713 Set bold-italic fontset to Pt. Similar to Ps = 50 (Compile styles). Ps = 720 Move viewing window up by Pt lines, or clear scrollback buffer if Pt = 0 (Compile frills). Ps = 721 Move viewing window down by Pt lines, or clear scrollback buffer if Pt = 0 (Compile frills). + Ps = 777 Call the perl extension with the given string, which should be of the form extension:parameters (Compile perl). @@ -1858,17 +1948,21 @@ MWM-hints EWMH-hints (pid, utf8 names) and protocols (ping) - seperate underline colour - settable border widths and borderless switch - settable extra linespacing + seperate underline colour (-underlineColor) + settable border widths and borderless switch (-w, -b, -bl) + settable extra linespacing /-lsp) iso-14755-2 and -3, and visual feedback backindex and forwardindex escape sequence window op and some xterm/OSC escape sequences - tripleclickwords - settable insecure mode + tripleclickwords (-tcw) + settable insecure mode (-insecure) keysym remapping support - cursor blinking and underline cursor - -embed and -pty-fd options + cursor blinking and underline cursor (-cb, -uc) + XEmbed support (-embed) + user-pty (-pty-fd) + hold on exit (-hold) + skip builtin block graphics (-sbg) + sgr modes 90..97 and 100..107 --enable-iso14755 (default: on) Enable extended ISO 14755 support (see rxvt(1), or doc/rxvt.1.txt). @@ -1911,6 +2005,13 @@ --enable-pointer-blank (default: on) Add support to have the pointer disappear when typing or inactive. + --enable-perl (default: off) + Enable an embedded perl interpreter. See the rxvtperl(3) manpage + (doc/rxvtperl.txt) for more info on this feature, or the files in + src/perl-ext/ for the extensions that are installed by default. The + perl interpreter that is used can be specified via the "PERL" + environment variable when running configure. + --with-name=NAME (default: urxvt) Set the basename for the installed binaries, resulting in "urxvt", "urxvtd" etc.). Specify "--with-name=rxvt" to replace with "rxvt".