Can look of ical (calendar) be configured?

[Walt H]

While not an earth shattering problem, I would like to find a way to change the look at ical so it looks a little elss, shall we say, dull. Specifically, I'd like to lose the gray. I searched the web and found some documentation, but the descriptions differ from what is in /root/.usr/lib/ical/v2.3/pref.tcl and I couldn't find any other file that seemed to have the editable properties described in the man page, which I found at http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man1/ical.1.html.

I've managed to change the font, and I can change the background of calendar sections that I click on, but I don't want to have to click on a blank entry in order to change the color. (I've sort of ended up with a combination of white (items selected then unselected) and gray (items not selected) and occasionally khaki (for currently selected items).



The white below the calendar was achieved by clicking in each section of the space. (Although there are no lines, it seems to be divided much the same way as the days are divided into 30-minute blocks.

Does anyone have a suggestion for how to alter this? Thanks in advance.

[BarryK]

So walt, does that mean you are actually using Ical?
Any usage difficulties -- apart from the comsmetic issues?

[Bruce B]

Barry I use ical. There are some issues crazy in the text mode section of the program. Has to do with backspace, delete and some other keys.

Sort of hard to figure. I don't think it's a bug, rather the keybinding and the design or something. Maybe the explanation is in textwin.tcl

I just look at it as part of the personality of ical. Otherwise a nice program.

[Walt H]

So walt, does that mean you are actually using Ical?
Any usage difficulties -- apart from the comsmetic issues?

Only occasionally at present, more to try it out than because of any pressing need. It seemed to work OK, I think, although I don't think all calendar files (individual events and dates and presumably created in ical as I don't use XCalendar) showed up in ical. I came across one entry I must have created (my son's date for returning to school) but didn't remember because it wasn't present when I launched ical.

Barry I use ical. There are some issues crazy in the text mode section of the program. Has to do with backspace, delete and some other keys.

Sort of hard to figure. I don't think it's a bug, rather the keybinding and the design or something. Maybe the explanation is in textwin.tcl

If i remember correctly, the online man page makes some mention of the key bindings and I think indicates that those can also be adjusted, although that's above my capability, so I didn't really look at that section, to be honest.

[Walt H]

Does anyone have any ideas about how to change the look of ical? A google search eventually turned up the online man page (apparently Apple also has an ical application , which is related to Mozilla's calendar). That page mentions some attributes that can be changed in ical, but Puppy's version uses different names for those attributes, and changing most of them does nothing. I can change the font, and I can change the background of selected entries, but cannot change the default background from the ugly slate gray.

I was able to change those colors in XCalendar, which I would have thought would be less configurable. Suggestions anyone? Thanks.

[puppian]

Do you mean changing the item background?
The help file mentioned X resouces.

Would this help?

[Walt H]

Thanks. I'll take a look. I had seen mention of XResources, but never saw any indication of where they were stored. Did not come across this article. Thanks again.

[Bruce B]

Walt, in Puppy it is ~/.xinitrc

I would not put the setting in there because of a potential problem because some dotpups install a different .xinitrc and backup the old one.

There is a way to put your ical changes in its own file and merge it with Xresources. That's what I'd recommend.

[Walt H]

Walt, in Puppy it is ~/.xinitrc

I would not put the setting in there because of a potential problem because some dotpups install a different .xinitrc and backup the old one.

There is a way to put your ical changes in its own file and merge it with Xresources. That's what I'd recommend.

So, if I read this and ~/xinitrc (didn't see a 'hidden' file /.xinitrc, even though other hidden files are visible - it is in the /root [i.e., Puppy's home] directory, right?) correctly, I should create a file called ~/.Xresources, then either run xinitrc or enter xrdb -merge $userresources at the command line. Or am I way off base here?

It's a lot of trouble for an application I may not use, but if I can make ical a bit easier on my eyes, I might use it more. I used JPilot semi-regularly once I got it looking the way I wanted in Feather. Plus, it will give me a sense of accomplishment.

Thanks for your help.

[Bruce B]

Walt, in Puppy it is ~/.xinitrc

I would not put the setting in there because of a potential problem because some dotpups install a different .xinitrc and backup the old one.

There is a way to put your ical changes in its own file and merge it with Xresources. That's what I'd recommend.

So, if I read this and ~/xinitrc (didn't see a 'hidden' file /.xinitrc, even though other hidden files are visible - it is in the /root [i.e., Puppy's home] directory, right?) correctly, I should create a file called ~/.Xresources, then either run xinitrc or enter xrdb -merge $userresources at the command line. Or am I way off base here?

It's a lot of trouble for an application I may not use, but if I can make ical a bit easier on my eyes, I might use it more. I used JPilot semi-regularly once I got it looking the way I wanted in Feather. Plus, it will give me a sense of accomplishment.

Thanks for your help.

Walt, here are the top lines of ~/.xinitrc AKA /root/.xinitrc

#!/bin/sh
# $Xorg: xinitrc.cpp,v 1.3 2000/08/17 19:54:30 cpqbld Exp $

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/Xresources
sysmodmap=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

# merge in defaults and keymaps

if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi

if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi

if [ -f $userresources ]; then
xrdb -merge $userresources
fi

if [ -f $usermodmap ]; then
xmodmap $usermodmap
fi

-----------------------------------

Note that $HOME/.Xresources is the file for user resources.

That would be a good file to use for your experimentation.

However, I'm not satisified that this command works, although I could be wrong and hopefully am wrong:

xrdb -merge $sysresources

I modify the xrdb -merge lines as follows:

xrdb -merge -nocpp $sysresources

[Walt H]

Creating a .Xresources file did the trick. In my case, I ran the following command:

Code: Select all

xrdb -nocpp -merge ~/.Xresources

The -nocpp flag is necessary because cpp is not present or at least not found in Puppy.

In the end, although not perfected, I have a nicer looking Ical

that for me, at least is a bit easier on the eyes.

Thanks for all the help!

[Bruce B]

> The -nocpp flag is necessary because cpp is not present or at least not found in Puppy.

That's the conclusion I arrived at, which causes me to wonder if .xinitrc does what it is supposed to do.

Maybe Barry can read this post and determine if it (.xinitrc) needs changing. Maybe I am missing something in my consideration about this.

BTW - would you mind posting the changes you made, because I also like ical and use it.

[Walt H]

Sure. I'll do it tonight when I'm back at my home machine. Two things I found: 1) You have to run the -merge command everytime you make a change to .Xresources. 2) If you make an "illegal" change (e.g., an unrecognized color), Ical will simply open a small blank box. In that case, reverse change, run the -merge command again, and all should be good.

In the course of making my changes, though, I lost some of the larger font sizes (e.g., the month showed up in larger print initially), and nothing I did would bring those larger fonts back. Now, I'll be looking for ways to modify font attributes (size, bold, etc.) in .Xresources.

[Bruce B]

Sure. I'll do it tonight when I'm back at my home machine. Two things I found: 1) You have to run the -merge command everytime you make a change to .Xresources. 2) If you make an "illegal" change (e.g., an unrecognized color), Ical will simply open a small blank box. In that case, reverse change, run the -merge command again, and all should be good.

In the course of making my changes, though, I lost some of the larger font sizes (e.g., the month showed up in larger print initially), and nothing I did would bring those larger fonts back. Now, I'll be looking for ways to modify font attributes (size, bold, etc.) in .Xresources.

Very good Walt. Normally, when you make the changes you have to restart X to see the effect of the changes. But if you make a short script or alias to merge the changes, you can make changes and simply restart ical to see the effects. Much faster and easier, because you are likely to make dozens of changes before you are satisfied with the results.

No rush on posting the configuration, wait until it is just right and I'll use those settings

[Bruce B]

About COLORS:

I was not able to find a list of acceptable colors for ical.

I tried the #000000 format and it didn't seem to work

Does ical accept lightgray or lightgrey or beige?

Who knows? Maybe we could find the answer in the source files. Otherwise trial and error.

[Walt H]

Bruce,

I don't think I had to restart X. I ran the xrdb -merge command from an rxvt window without exiting out of X and things seemed to work fine. (I guess I'll know better when I launch Puppy back up tonight.)

As far as colors are concerned, I used color names (e.g., lightyellow, SlateBlue, etc.). Some colors like gray and Slate Blue also take number attributes (gray50 and SlateBlue3 were two I came across). If you add a number and that color does not accept such an attribute, you'll run into the blank box that I mentioned earlier. I'm pretty sure the numbers indicate the degree of shading, but I don't know why they work with some colors and not with others (purple, for example, which does accept light as an attribute).

[Bruce B]

I don't think I had to restart X. I ran the xrdb -merge command from an rxvt window without exiting out of X and things seemed to work fine. (I guess I'll know better when I launch Puppy back up tonight.)

That's right. If you weren't running the merge you would have to restart X to get the changes. My earlier post was acknowledging your technique which is a time saver.

Anyway, it would be nice to know what colors work. Thanks the number tip.

[Walt H]

I also learned that you need to edit .xinitrc to reflect the -nocpp flag from .Xresources.

There is a line that has the xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources in it. You have to add the -nocpp flag to that line in order for any changes to be permanent.

I haven't forgotten about posting my .Xresources file. I have a couple of things I want to try, and a mishap with a BBQ grill has caused a few delays. Tonight for sure.

[Bruce B]

I also learned that you need to edit .xinitrc to reflect the -nocpp flag from .Xresources.

There is a line that has the xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources in it. You have to add the -nocpp flag to that line in order for any changes to be permanent.

I haven't forgotten about posting my .Xresources file. I have a couple of things I want to try, and a mishap with a BBQ grill has caused a few delays. Tonight for sure.

Exactly what I figured. .xinitrc doesn't work right without the modifications. I guess we should post it as what we think is a bug.

[Walt H]

Okay, here it is, my /.Xresources file:

Code: Select all

Ical*Foreground: navy
Ical*Background: lightyellow
Ical.itemSelectBg : khaki
Ical.itemSelectFg: SlateBlue3
Ical.itemBg: lightyellow
Ical.itemFg: gray60
Ical.apptLineColor: navy
Ical.weekdayColor: navy
Ical.weekendColor: purple
Ical.interestColor: darkred
Ical.weekendInterestColor: darkorange
Ical.fontFamily: helvetica
Ical.fixedFontFamily: lucidatypewriter
Ical.weekdayFont: helvetica
Ical.weekendFont: helvetica
Ical*itemFont: helvetica

I haven't figured out how to add some fonts that are supposed to be in the system, like URW Gothic L. Pasting one of the entries from /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1didn't work. I guess I'd have to copy the font into the /misc directory and then add it to the fonts.alias file?

I also edited my ~/.xinitrc file to automatically launch ical on startup. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed where I placed that command determined whether ical lauched at startup or not, or maybe it was the way I entered the command ('exec ical' didn't work but 'exec ical &' did). I ended up placing the command right before the last two lines of .xinitrc as so:

Code: Select all

exec ical &
CURRENTWM="`cat /etc/windowmanager`"
exec $CURRENTWM

One other thing I discovered is not to edit the system xinitrc file in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit as that will get rid of your menu and task bar with no way to get them back. Doing that and also automatically launching ical caused Puppy to exit to a prompt whenever I closed the application. I had to go into MP to edit the file to restore Puppy. Thank goodness for a relatively easy to use, command line text editor.