-*-Text-*-

This is the README to xform 1.0.

Copyright for xform Michael Staats (michael@hal6000.thp.Uni-Duisburg.DE). 

xform can be distributed under the GNU Public License, see COPYING
File. 

xform is a command interpreter to generate windows with some widgets
under X11.

Using xform:

usage: xform [-g graffile] [conffile]

xforms reads a configuration file and generates the X window.
If no configuration file is given, xform will determine piped input
and read from stdin.

There are two example configration files:
tst		A nonsense test.
faxform		Our form for a fax (alpha version).

There is one example "application":
xfax		Our fax interface, uses faxform.

Format of the configuration file:

* Comment lines start with a #, just like in shells.

* Empty lines are ignored.

* The first non-empty line may contain the command
  format x y
  where x and y are integers specifying the size of the window.
  If this command is not the first one, default dimensions will
  be used. If this command appears later it will generate an error.

* Lines following the format command may contain various commands
  which will be described below.

In the description below some meta word are used.

Meta word	replace with

x		x coordinate of widget
y		y coordinate of widget

Opt		one or more characters with command specific meanings

String		text enclosed in double quotes. If the last character
		in the string is a '|' (pipe symbol), the text will be
		read from a popen call.

Action		one of
		quit     (means: quit the program)
		toutput  (means: print the contents of input items)
		goutput  (means: dump window contents in xwd format to
				 the file specified with -g option. If
				 no file is specified, xform calls
				 tmpnam to generate a name and prints
				 a line in the format
				 GRAFFILE=<Name of graffile>)
		output   (calls toutput and goutput)
		exit     (calls output and quit)
		system   (means: call system() with specified argument)

Optional arguments will appear in brackets [].
xform understands the following commands:

* title String
	Sets the window title to the specified string.

* font String
	Sets the font. String must be a valid X11 font name.

* text x y [Opt] String
	Writes String at x,y.
	Specify b as option to write bold text.

* button Action x y String [String]
	Generates a button at x,y with label String. When pushed, 
	Action will be performed. For Action system you have to
	specify the systemcommand with the second string, for Action
        goutput you can optionally specify an output file name, this
        overrides the -g option only for this button.

* input x y sl l [Opt [format]] String [String]
	Creates an input item at x,y with the length of l
	characters, internally sl characters will be saved. Option can be
	n	means: Don't write contents of inputfile when toutput.
	b	means: Write the label bold (there are problems under AIX,
		       where the label is always bold :-( )
	u	means: Underline input field.
	f	allows the specification of a format string.
		If toutput is called, the contents of the input field
		is printed with
		printf(format, <Label>, <Contents of inputfield>);
		The format has to be included in double quotes.
	c	This item will have the caret on program start.
	e	call alternative eventhandler. Don't use this, it is
		under development.
	The label of the input item is specified with the first
	string, the input field is filled with the optional second string.


* minput x y l [Opt [format]] String [String]
	Creates a multiline input item at x,y with length l. Other
	Arguments see input.

* line x1 y1 x2 y2 DOES NOT WORK! (UP TO NOW...)