User Defaults Summary for GNUstep Libraries $Revision$ $Date$ Defaults Summary

This document contains a summary of available user default values that one can set to control the operation of the GNUstep libraries.

GUI Library Defaults

Below is a list of defaults used to control the gnustep-gui library.

GSBackend

A string containing the name of the backend bundle to use for display specific GUI handling. The default is "libgnustep-back". Custom backends can be created during compilation of the libraries. Any other choice for a name is thus system specific.

GSBrowserCellFontify

A boolean value, NO by default. When the feature is on, NSBrowserCell draws non-leaf cells in bold system font. For example, when the feature is on, in a SavePanel (or OpenPanel), directory entries are drawn in bold, while simple files are drawn in non bold.

GSAbortKey

The key used to abort the insertion of multi-stroke keybinding. Default is Control-g.

GSQuoteKey

The key used to quote the next keystroke (so that it is not interpreted as a keybinding, but just inserted into the text as it is). Default is Control-q.

GSFileBrowserHideDotFiles

A boolean, by default NO. If you set it to YES, files that begin with a dot ('.') are not shown in the NSSavePanel or NSOpenPanel.

GSInsertControlKeystrokes

A boolean, by default NO. If you set it to YES, keystrokes containing a Control are inserted into the text when they can't be interpreted as keybindings. By default, they are ignored and cause the computer to beep.

GSKeyBindingsFiles

An array of strings, (DefaultKeyBindings) by default. The strings in this array (with .dict appended) are the names of the files the library reads to load the keybindings. For each of these files (in the order), the library first tries to read the file with that name from the $GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT/Libraries/Resources/KeyBindings/ directory, loading all the keybindings it finds in the file, then it loads the similar file from $GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT and then the similar one from $GNUSTEP_NETWORK_ROOT and at last the one from $GNUSTEP_USER_ROOT. If you have a single set of customized keybindings which you want to be loaded in addition to the default ones (or overriding some of the default ones), just add a DefaultKeybindings.dict file in your ~/GNUstep/Libraries/Resources/KeyBindings/ directory, and keybindings from this file are automatically loaded in addition to the default ones; you do not need to change this user default. If instead you want more keybinding files to be loaded, or you do not want the system default keybindings file to be loaded, you might well need to change it.

GSKeyBindings

A dictionary, containing keybindings which are loaded by the library after the ones found in the GSKeyBindingsFiles. Might be useful if you have only a couple of keybindings, and don't want to write a custom keybindings file. If you have many keybindings, it is recommended that you keep them in a file. The syntax of keybindings entries and files is documented elsewhere.

GSSavePanelShowProgress

A boolean value, NO by default. When the feature is on, the save panel and its subclasses (such as the open panel) displays "Reading Directory ***.." (progressively adding dots) in the window titlebar while reading very big directories (more than 100 entries). This is meant to make things friendlier for slow computers.

GSLogWorkspaceTimeout

A boolean value that defaults to NO. This is a obscure and probably not useful default. NSWorkspace tries to receive distributed notifications, but if a distributed objects server cannot be found or some other error occurs, it raises an exception which normally terminates the program. Setting this default causes NSWorkspace to just log the problem without raising an exception.

GSWorkspaceApplication

A string value that defaults to "GWorkspace". This defines the application NSWorkspace will try to connect to process some operations that require an external application. This is a new feature and has not been tested.

NSInterfaceStyleDefault

A string describing the interface style. Setting this may change various aspects of how the library draws elements and responds to user interaction. See the NSInterfaceStyle documentation for more information.

NSMenuInterfaceStyle

An interface style specific to menu operation. If not set the NSInterfaceStyleDefault value is used.

NSCommandKeys

A dictionary of command key equivalents for menu items. The key contains the title of the menu item and the value is the command key equivalent. For instance, one might set the command key for the menu item "Copy" to "C".

NSHost

Used by NSPasteboard to find the host on which the pasteboard server is running.

NSMeasurementUnit

A string describing the measurement unit for rulers (see the NSRulerView class documentation). The default is Centimeters. Other possible values are Inches, Points, and Picas.

NSPreviewApp

A string value that defaults to "gv". This defines the application NSPrintOperation will try to connect to preview PostScript files, unless there is already an application registed as a Viewer of ps files.

System Colors

System colors are standard colors for drawing various GUI elements, such as buttons, text, scroller, etc. They can be set using the normal user defaults system. An NSColorList called "System" is stored in the users's private color list directory. This color list can also be manipulated through the NSColorList class (typically through a preferences module).

System Fonts

System Fonts may be set using the defaults system. System fonts are standard fonts for drawing text in GUI elements. They include NSBoldFont, for instance. The value is the name of the font to use. There is also a cooresponding size key (e.g. NSBoldFontSize) for specifying the point size of the font. The keys that can be used for setting the system fonts are described in the documentation for NSFont.

Backend Defaults

Below is a list of defaults used to control the x11-based backend. These defaults generally control system specific display and user interaction options which may not be available on all systems.

NSDefaultVisual

An integer that specifies the X-Windows visual class to use in the application. For instance one could display the application using the PsuedoColor visual class by setting the value to the id of this class. The default is the X-Windows default visual class.

NSColorsPerChannel

An integer which limits the maximum number of colors to display, per channel. For a psuedo-color display, this would limit the total number of colors that the application could use (normally 256). For a true-color display, this would limit the range of red, green, and blue values that could be used.

GSAppOwnsMiniwindow

A boolean value which defaults to YES. Some window managers control the miniaturized versions of windows themselves. Set this default to NO to let the window manager have it's way, otherwise, GNUstep will create a miniwindow.

GSFontAntiAlias

A boolean value which defaults to NO. If set to YES and the X-Windows system has the XFT extension, then the application will use anti-aliased fonts as provided by the X-Windows system.

GSFontMask

A string value which defaults to "*". It defines the pattern used to get the installed fonts from the X-Server. A value of "*-iso8859-1" would only include fonts available with ISO Western encoding. This feature might be helpfull if the font_cacher program is having problem with the X-Server.

GraphicCompositing

A boolean value which defaults to YES. If set to YES, then the application uses various tricks to get alpha colors to work when compositing images. This may slow down drawing of images, but it is generally recommended anyway, particularly on fast systems.

Keyboard Modifiers

The OPENstep specification requires 3 main different keyboard modifiers: CONTROL, COMMAND and ALTERNATE. Some systems may not have these set up correctly. You can changed the defaults with the default keys.

GSFirstControlKey GSSecondControlKey GSFirstCommandKey GSSecondCommandKey GSFirstAlternateKey GSSecondAlternateKey

Default values are respectively:

Control_L Control_R Alt_L NoSymbol Alt_R NoSymbol

This is described more completely in the GUI documentation.

UseWindowMakerIcons

A boolean value which defaults to YES. If set to YES then icon windows are controlled by the window manager, otherwise they are controlled by the GNUstep application.

XGPS-Shm

A boolean value which defaults to YES (as long as shared memory is available). If set to NO, shared memory is not used for various display specific operations.