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-
- XMAN is an X Window System manual browsing tool.
-
-
-
- GETTING STARTED
-
- By default, xman starts by creating a small window that contains
- three "buttons" (places on which to click a pointer button). Two of
- these buttons, Help and Quit, are self-explanatory. The third, Manual
- Page, creates a new manual page browser window; you may use this
- button to open a new manual page any time xman is running.
-
- A new manual page starts up displaying this help information. The
- manual page contains three sections. In the upper left corner are two
- menu buttons. When the mouse is clicked on either of these buttons a
- menu is popped up. The contents of these menus is described below.
- Directly to the right of the menu buttons is an informational display.
- This display usually contains the name of the directory or manual page
- being displayed. It is also used to display warning messages and the
- current version of xman. The last and largest section is the
- information display. This section of the application contains either
- a list of manual pages to choose from or the text of a manual page.
-
- To use xman pull down the Sections menu to select a manual section.
- When the section is displayed, click the left pointer button on the
- name of the manual page that you would like to see. Xman will
- replace the directory listing with the manual page you selected.
-
- That should be enough to get you started. Once you understand the
- basics of how to use xman, take a look at the rest of this file to see the
- advanced features that are available to make using xman fast and
- efficient.
-
-
- SCROLLING TEXT
-
- The scroll bars are similar to xterm and xmh scroll bars; clicking the
- left or right pointer button with the pointer at the bottom of the
- scroll bar will scroll the text down or up one page, respectively.
- Clicking with the pointer farther up the scroll bar scrolls
- proportionally less than one page. Clicking the middle button a
- portion of the way down the scroll bar will move the text window that
- portion of the way down the text. Holding the middle button and
- moving the pointer up and down allows the text to be scrolled
- dynamically.
-
- You may also type 'f' or <space bar> to scroll down one page, and
- 'b' to scroll up one page.
-
-
- RESIZING WINDOWS
-
- You can resize any of the windows in xman with your window manager,
- and xman will do the best it can to resize everything internally into
- a useful configuration. The only control over the internal arrangement
- that you have is moving the border between the manual page and directory
- when both are displayed. This is done by clicking and holding the any
- pointer button when the cursor is over the small square (grip) on the
- right side of the screen. The grip is located on the horizontal line
- which separates the panes. The grip may be moved up and down to resize
- the panes of the screen, and when the pointer button is released xman
- will move the pane boundary to the newly specified location.
-
-
- MENU COMMANDS
-
- There are two ways to activate the menus. The first is to click any
- pointer button in the menu button corresponding to the menu you want
- to activate. The second method is to hold down the "Control" key and
- click the left pointer button for the Options menu or the middle
- pointer button for the Sections menu. Reguardless of how the menu
- was activated, selecting items is the same.
-
- Once a menu is activated, continue to hold down the pointer button and
- drag the pointer cursor over the item that you would like to activate.
- Once the item that you want to select is highlighted, select it by
- releasing the pointer button. To avoid making a menu selection, move
- the pointer cursor outside the menu and release the button.
-
- Selecting one of the items in the Sections menu will display the
- named directory.
-
- The following commands are available through the Options menu:
-
- Display Directory Show the current section directory.
-
- Display Manual Page Show the current manual page.
-
- Help Create a help window with this text displayed.
-
- Search Pop up a dialogue box that allows the entire tree
- of manual pages to be searched for a specific name.
- A keyword (apropos) search is also available through
- this dialogue box.
-
- Show Both Screens Split the manual page display window to display
- both the current manual page and the directory.
- Show One Screen Return to a single screen display of either a
- manual page or directory listing.
-
- Remove This Man Page Remove this manual page, do not quit.
-
- Open New Man Page Pop up a new manual page browser window.
-
- Show Version Print the current version of xman to the information
- display window. Please include the version number
- when reporting bugs.
-
- Quit Close all xman windows and quit xman.
-
-
- SUMMARY OF BASIC ACTIONS
-
- In a menu button:
-
- CLICK: Pop up a menu
-
- In a directory, manual page, or scroll bar:
-
- <CONTROL> CLICK LEFT: Pop up the Options menu.
- <CONTROL> CLICK MIDDLE: Pop up the Sections menu.
-
- In a directory:
-
- CLICK LEFT: Bring up named manual page
- <SHIFT> CLICK MIDDLE: Go to manual page previously chosen.
-
- In a manual page or apropos listing:
-
- <SHIFT> CLICK MIDDLE: Go to directory of manual pages.
-
- In scroll bars:
-
- CLICK LEFT: Move down - more if pointer is near bottom
- of window, less if at top.
- CLICK MIDDLE: Move top of page to current pointer position.
- CLICK RIGHT: Move up - more if pointer is near bottom
- of window, less if at top.
-
- SEARCHING
-
- Xman has a built-in searching utility that allows the user to search
- the entire manual page tree for a specific topic (manual page search)
- or a keyword (apropos search). The search dialogue box can be activated
- from the Options menu, or by the key Control-s. If the search is started
- from the small initial topbox xman will open a new manual page if the
- search was successful, and fail silently if the search was unsuccessful.
-
- Manual page searches are performed starting in the currently
- displayed section. If no match is found then the remaining sections
- are searched in the order that the sections appear in the Sections
- menu, starting at the top. The current version of xman immediately
- displays the first manual page that it finds. If the manual page cannot
- be found that fact is noted in the informational display.
-
- An apropos search will search a list of short descriptions for all
- manual pages on the system and return a list of all descriptions
- which contain the keyword specified.
-
-
- KEYBOARD ACCELERATORS
-
- Xman contains a set of preinstalled keyboard accelerators. These are
- a set of key bindings that perform many of the same operations as the menu
- items. Since it is not necessary to pull down the menu, these actions can
- be performed more quickly, hence the name accelerators.
-
- The default key bindings for xman are:
-
- Anywhere:
-
- Control - c Exit xman
- Control - h Create the help window
- Control - n Create a new man page
- Control - q Exit xman
- Control - s Create a search popup
-
- In a manual page, directory, or help window:
-
- Control - r Remove this manual page or help display
- Control - v Show the current version of xman
-
- In a manual page or directory:
-
- Control - d Display Directory
- Control - m Display Man Page
-
- In a manual page only:
-
- b Page Back
- f Page forward
- <Space> Page forward
- 1 One line forward
- 2 Two lines forward
- 3 Three lines forward
- 4 Four lines forward
-
- Note: Control-s does not have any effect in the help window.
-
-
- FURTHER INFORMATION
-
- Xman is highly customizable. Through the X resource database a user
- can customize the look and feel of this application so that it meets a
- preferred style of interaction. Almost any configuration that is available
- dynamically can be specified through resources. This includes changing the
- size, color, and fonts, starting with no topbox, showing both screens,
- and rebinding the keyboard accelerators.
-
- The information on customizing xman is contained in the xman manual page,
- I will leave it to you to figure out how to find and display that
- information :-)
-
-
- Chris D. Peterson
- MIT X Consortium
-
- CREDITS
-
- Version: Use 'Show Version' menu item.
- Written By: Chris D. Peterson - formerly MIT X Consortium
- Based Upon: Xman for X10 by Barry Shein - Boston University
- Copyright 1988, 1989 X Consortium
- Edited by Donna Converse and Dave Sternlicht
-
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