Information About

Xterm





Software| Information

  caption A sample Xterm, running the BASH shell, showing a list of /etc
  developer Thomas Dickey
  latest Release Version XFree86
  latest Release Date
  operating System X Window System
  genre Terminal Emulator
  website {Link without Title}


xterm is the standard Terminal Emulator for the X Window System . A user can have many different invocations of xterm running at once on the same Display , each of which provides independent Input/output for the Process running in it (normally the process is a Unix Shell ).

xterm originated prior to the X Window System. It was originally written as a stand-alone terminal emulator for the VAXStation 100 (VS100) by Mark Vandevoorde , a student of Jim Gettys , in the summer of 1984 , when work on X started. It rapidly became clear that it would be more useful as part of X than as a standalone program, so it was retargeted to X. As Gettys tells the story {Link without Title} , ''"part of why xterm's internals are so horrifying is that it was originally intended that a single process be able to drive multiple VS100 displays."''

After many years as part of the X reference implementation, around 1996 the main line of development then shifted to XFree86 (which itself forked from X11R6.3) and is presently maintained by Thomas Dickey .

Many xterm variants are also available. Most terminal emulators for X started as variations on xterm.

Xterm normally does not have a menu bar. To access xterm's three menus, users must hold the Control key and press the left, middle, or right mouse button. Support for a "toolbar" can be compiled-in, which invokes the same menus.


SEE ALSO



EXTERNAL LINKS



REFERENCES