An Introduction to XColorSel
XColorSel is my first "real" X application. I wanted to
do something fairly straightforward, but something which is useful as well.
As it turns out, I spent more time with it than I thought I would, adding
new features, and playing with all the stuff that makes X so neat. XColorSel
is the result.
Ok... First, what exactly is XColorSel? Well, basically, its a progam
which reads the rgb.txt file on your system. This file comes with your X11
distribution, and it lists the colors which have been set up by name. These
colors are most often used when configuring your personal setup, such as in
a window manager's config file. These colors are used for much more than
that though. For example, if you were to type "Mosaic -fg Red -bg Green
", X looks up the RGB values of these colors and uses them in Mosaic.
These colors are all listed for us mere humans in the rgb.txt file, usually
located in the x11r?/lib/X11 directory.
XColorSel reads this file, uses the RGB values listed there to build the
actual colors, and it displays ten of them at a time, along with their
corresponding RGB values and their actual name.
Why would you want to use XColorSel? Well, while the names in rgb.txt
are quite descriptive, they can also be confusing, and well, they say that a
picture is worth a thousand words. Actually being able to see the color
in question is a great help in deciding wether or not you want to use it.
Obviously, you can use XColorSel for whatever you want, but the main purpose
I had in mind was in configuring your window manager, xterm windows, etc.
If you are playing with anything that needs RGB values at all, the
Color Editor could be useful, either for
creating a new color, or for altering an existing one in the rgb.txt file.
Above all, enjoy the program! Feel free to drop me any comments, questions,
or flames you may have about XColorSel.
Jon N. Steiger / stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu / SUNY College at Fredonia