Re: Motif support

[martin rudalics]

>> I don't think we want to reinstate Motif support.
>
> The code still works perfectly: reinstating that line allowed me to
> configure and build a functioning Motif Emacs, even with new features
> such as XInput2.

I am building with Motif regularly ever since support for it was dropped
and still think it comes up as the best graphical build on GNU/Linux.

> The Motif build also has some technical advantages over others these
> days.  For example, Motif at present has the only working toolkit
> scrollbars on X where the thumb size is adjusted when it is dragged.
>
> I spent a while trying to fix bug#51343 a few weeks ago and didn't get
> anywhere, and implementing toolkit scrollbars correctly on GTK isn't
> possible anyway, as the GTK developers don't want programs to control
> the thumb size.

As someone who spent considerable time to control the appearance of
scroll bars and tooltips via gtk.css and eventually gave up, I can only
concur.  We have, for example, bug reports that the GTK slider width
cannot be controlled by Emacs.  Unfortunately, GTK (and GNOME) settings
are sometimes considered as God-given here, something an earthly Emacser
is not supposed to contest.

> Icon window menus on mwm also work correctly only with Motif Emacs.
>
> Also, I think that discussion boiled down to "let's remove it and see if
> anyone notices"... well, I noticed :)
>
> It won't hurt to keep that code, especially since nobody has managed to
> break in close to a year since it was disabled, even with large features
> such as XInput2 and the xwidgets update.

It's not too late (so far nobody bothered to change the Wikipedia entry

  GNU Emacs runs both on text terminals and in graphical user interface
  (GUI) environments. On Unix-like operating systems, GNU Emacs can use
  the X Window System to produce its GUI either directly using Athena
  widgets or by using a "widget toolkit" such as Motif, LessTif, or
  GTK+.

).

martin