Sun/IRAF V2.11 Site Manager's Guide

4.1. The OpenWindows environment

The graphics and image display tools provided with IRAF operate within the OpenWindows windowing environment much like the standard tools provided with OpenWindows. To help illustrate the use of these tools, Sun/IRAF is distributed with a sample OpenWindows environment already configured for the IRAF account. This consists of the following files in the IRAF account login directory, iraf$local.

.Xdefaults: Sets up the defaults for how the window system looks, e.g., defines the X resources controlling window colors, fonts, etc.
.openwin-menu: An example of a simple custom rootmenu for the OpenLook window manager, including entries for xgterm and ximtool. Other window managers will rely on a different configuration file.
.xinitrc: Executed at window system start up time to create all the windows (note the funny business at the end to avoid the infamous "white screen" problem sometimes seen when exiting OpenWindows).

No one screen layout will suit all users or all applications. Everyone will wish to customize the workstation screen to suit their preferences and the type of work they are doing. However, the configuration provided works and should be useful as an example of how to make things function correctly.