panel font puzzle

[purslow at sympatico.ca]

040821 Olivier wrote:
> On Sat, 2004-08-21 at 21:13, purslow at sympatico.ca wrote:
>> when i start Xfce after a (re)boot, the panel is shorter with smaller font;
>> if i exit Xfce without rebooting then restart Xfce,
>> the panel is slightly larger & the desktop-switcher font distinctly larger:
>> the difference is perhaps  9 pt  vs  12 pt .
>> it happens even when i suppress the 'kdeinit' line in  xinitrc
>> (i checked with  pstree  &  kdeinit  was not running on either occasion).
>> my panel settings are 'tiny, vertical, right, curve, top, bottom, set'.
>> there's a line in  ~/.xfce4/settings/gtk.xml :
>> 
>>   <option name="Gtk/FontName" type="string" value="Helvetica 9"/>
>> 
>> which mb causing the initial small font,
>> but then what is resetting it larger when i restart Xfce after exiting it ?
> It's not a bug in the panel,
> the DPI is probably modified by some of the app you run (gnome or kde)

no, see below.

> and pango uses that info when rendering the fonts,
> making your fonts look smaller.
> By defaut, xfce sets a DPI of 96, like Red Hat does:
> some see this as a bug, but I want to keep it that way
> so we can have meaningfull font defaults.

i have no views re this last sentence one way or the other (smile).

thanx for your prompt reply.

i just retested & made  2  screenshots.
1st i rebooted & started Xfce4 without anything else starting;
then i opened  2  Xterms to give you an idea of font sizes ( 11 & 9 );
then i ran  pstree  in the 2nd to show what processes are running;
then i used Ksnapshot to make a screenshot

  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~purslow/panel-1.png

no, starting the KDE libs did not alter the panel in any way:
that is exactly how it appeared as soon as XFCE4 came up on the screen.

then i rebooted again, started Xfce4, closed it immediately & restarted it;
i opend Xterms, ran  pstree  & made a snapshot as before, with the result

  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~purslow/panel-2.png
  
as you will see, the panel itself is longer & the font is bigger.  

here is my  ~/.xfce4/xinitrc : you will see the KDE lines are commented out:

-- start file --
#!/bin/sh

xsetroot -solid black -cursor_name watch

# fix broken $UID on some system...
if test "x$UID" = "x"; then
	UID=`id -u`
fi

# Those are my settings, change them as appropriate...
# Xft DPI: 96
# Xft.hintstyle: hintnone/hintslight/hintmedium/hintfull
# Xft hinting: 1/0

xrdb -merge - << EOF
Xft.dpi: 96
Xft.hinting: 1
Xft.hintstyle: hintmedium
EOF

# Launch xscreensaver (if available), but only as non-root user
test $UID -gt 0 && xscreensaver -no-splash &

# Run xfce4-session if installed
xfcesm=`which xfce4-session`
case "x$xfcesm" in
	x|xno*)
		;;
	*)
		exec $xfcesm
		# Shouldn't get there, but anyway...
		exit
		;;
esac

# or use old-fashioned startup script otherwise
xfce-mcs-manager
xfwm4 --daemon

# Start-up stuff from ~/Desktop/Autostart directory, if it exists
# (as it seems to be the new standard)
if test -d "$HOME/Desktop/Autostart"; then
  for i in `ls -1 -L ${HOME}/Desktop/Autostart/ 2>/dev/null`; do
    if test -x $HOME/Desktop/Autostart/$i; then
      $HOME/Desktop/Autostart/$i &
    fi
  done
fi

if test -f $HOME/.Xmodmap; then
	xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap
fi

#xftaskbar4&
xfce4-iconbox&
xfdesktop&

# PP 040801 : via XFCE bug 180 :  4  seconds
#( sleep 4 ; kdeinit ) &

# PP 040505 : via XFCE-user [ note 040821 : the following is  1  line ]
#( i=0 ; while test $[ `/sbin/pidof -s xfce4-panel` ] -eq "0" ; do sleep 1 ; i=$(( $i + 1 )); done ; kdeinit ) &

panel=`which xfce4-panel`
case "x$panel" in
	x|xno*)
		;;
	*)
		$panel
		ret=$?
		while test $ret -ne 0; do
			xmessage -center -file - -timeout 20 -title Error <<EOF
A crash occured in the panel
Please report this to the xfce4-dev at moongroup.com list
Meanwhile the panel will be restarted
EOF
			cat >&2 <<EOF
A crash occured in the panel
Please report this to the xfce4-dev at moongroup.com list
Meanwhile the panel will be restarted
EOF
			$panel
			ret=$?
		done
		;;
esac

xsetroot -solid black -cursor_name watch

# PP 040506 : via XFCE-user
#kdeinit_shutdown
#dcopserver_shutdown
#artsshell -q terminate
-- end file --

so something is happening to the Xfce4 panel w/o outside influence.
from previous experience, one possibility is the 'curve' theme,
tho' i don't know enough to know how that mt affect things.

-- 
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT     ___________//___,  Philip Webb : purslow at chass.utoronto.ca
ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|  Centre for Urban & Community Studies
TRANSIT    `-O----------O---'  University of Toronto