Re: just now made an emacs (on gnome). Problem: thinks I'm vt100 or something!

[Tim X <timx@nospam.dev.null>]

dkcombs@panix.com (David Combs) writes:

> Just made an emacs (23.1) on Solaris 10 sparc.  Was
> using gnome when I did it.
>
> ./configure  ... ... --with-gif=no  ...
>
> Now, I thought that the use for libgif (or giflib?) was
> so that you could show *photographs*, things like that.
>
> (I used the with-gif=no because, on comp.unix.solaris,  that was 
> how I was told to do the configure.)
>
> Anyway, that and the make (gmake) worked ok.
>
> And when I actually ran the newly-built emacs (in ../src/),
> hooray!, I finally had an emacs on this otherwise naked machine.
>
> But it sure didn't look like the ntemacs I'm running on xp,
> with the large fancy colorful "script" EMACS it showed on
> starting up.
>
> No such luck.  What I got was like 30 years ago emacs running
> on an ADM-3a or vt-100: took no advantage of the gnome gui
> it was running under.
>
> Question: could that "no gif" do that?  (I hope not!)
>
> So, what might I have done wrong?
>
> ---
>
> I was executing it from terminal-window's tcsh command-line,
> rather than by clicking an icon.  SURELY that has nothing
> to do with it -- but do tell me if I'm wrong.
>
>

Not sure why you have been told not to include gif support, but it
should have nothing to do with the issues you have observed. 

Sounds like you did a non-X build. Look at the output from configure and
make sure it includes X and an appropriate GUI lib such as gtk+ (given
your running gnome) or one of the older X gui libs.

Note also that the fancy 'Emacs' coloured startup screen may not appear
if you don't have the appropriate fonts or have set a font that prevents
emacs from drawing that flashier initial screen. In this case, yhou will
just get a very plain startup screen that looks very similar to the one
for non-GUI versions. 

The output from configure is the first place to look when tyring to
determine why a newly compiled emacs isn't looking right. Pay particular
attention to the font related stuff as you want anti-aliased fonts and
that an appropriate X library is being included. 

BTW, isn't the latest released 23 version 23.2? Probably should be
building that version rather than one with known bugs.

Tim

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au