[indiana-discuss] emacs

[Boyd Adamson]

Dick Hoogendijk <dick at nagual.nl> writes:

> Joanmarie Diggs wrote:
>> On Fri, 2009-04-17 at 15:28 -0700, Mike Kupfer wrote:
>>>>>>>> "Dick" == Dick Hoogendijk <dick at nagual.nl> writes:
>>> Dick> GTK-toolkit? Xaw-toolkit? What's the difference? Or do I just
>>> Dick> install all emacs pkgs?
>>>
>>> I'd just install either the GTK or the Xaw version.  The GTK version
>>> should give you better integration with the GNOME desktop than the Xaw
>>> (Athena Widgets) version.
>>
>> Agreed. Unless you have any need/interest in the area of a11y support.
>> In which case, I'd avoid the gtk version.
>
> What are the main (dis)advantages of the GTK / Xaw toolkit versions?
> I ask, because looking at the CBE version (the SFEemacs.spec) you have
> to specify --with-gdk to build with the GTK toolkit. So, default is
> Xaw, I guess. But why?

I suspect it's mostly historical. GTK did not used to be as widely
available as it is today.

Using GTK on current emacs CVS allows antialiased fonts. It's also the
default. The following is from the CVS emacs NEWS file:

--------------------
* Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1

** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed.  Gtk is now the
default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
--------------------