xmaple and Fc5 (maple 10)

[Rex Dieter]

David Jansen wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 10, 2006 at 07:04:11AM +0200, Joachim Backes wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> having the problem that xmaple (maple-10) does not run on FC5: it exits
>> immediately. maple-10 itself runs als CLI perfectly, but not as X
>> application.
>> 
>> Did somebody make similar experiences, or did somebody solve this
>> problem?
>> 
>> Any anwer is appreciated.
>> 
>> Regards
> 
> I noticed that too some time ago. It turns out maple comes with 2 GUIs,
> a default one that is written in Java and another (older) GUI which uses
> Motif libraries. It's the Java GUI which is broken, because maple
> includes an old version of the IBM JRE which doesn't seem to work with
> Xorg X11 R7

For the record, maple includes *sun's* java, not IBM's.

> Solution 1. Use the motif interface: 'maple -cw'

IMO, the "classic" interface is buggy in many ways.  Avoid if at all
possible.

> Solution 2. Install a newer JRE and make sure xmaple uses that one.

Works, that's what we do.

> I tried this with gcj and SUN Java, but that didn't work (gcj crashed,
> Sun Java had problems with fonts, lots of symbols went missing). So I'm
> not completely sure if this is a real solution, I stick with the motif
> interface for now.

Just make sure to use a proper fonts.properties (some day java will use
fontconfig hopefully), and all is well.

-- Rex