Bug 147180

Could you give more info (content of your .Xdefaults/.Xresources) and
aterm version (both rpm and aterm output (the Usage line with the
compile options)). I use .Xresources over here and it works fine.

OK - I've done a bit more debugging, and found where the issue is. 
It's because the .spec file passes --enable-xgetdefault in to
%configure when it's building.  According to README.configure, that
enables resource checking via XGetDefault() instead of doing what the
manpage says it does (checking .Xdefaults/.Xresources directly).

I guess the simple solution is to get rid of the --enable-xgetdefault
in the .spec file, though that may cause problems for other people?

You are right, the .spec does pass --enable-xgetdefault to the
configure script. This does not mean however that
.Xresources/.Xdefaults is not read (see
http://xorg.freedesktop.org/X11R6.8.0/doc/manindex3.html). Besides its
working for a bunch of people I talked to. If you would be so kind and
attach a copy of the relevant options form your .Xdefaults/.Xresources
I could try to figure out whats not working for you...

Such a change in the package would not be right. ~/.Xdefaults died
long ago in XFree86. Enabling a custom resource loader just to bring
it back to live, would be wrong.

Exactly what I think and why I enabled it in the first place...

Sure, fair enough.  In that case, the manpage is misleading when it's
built with --enable-xgetdefault.

I'm probably doing something very stupid, in that case.  Further
debugging reveals that most of the Aterm* options in my ~/.Xresources
are being used correctly (*transparent, *saveLines, *fading, and
various others).  Sorry - my initial bug report was incorrect in that
regard.

However, one of them is not:

Aterm*foreground: powderblue

I always get a black foreground.  Changing it to Aterm.foreground
makes no difference.

But if I manually do an "xrdb .Xresources" and then fire up an aterm,
it's fine.  Alternatively, compiling with --enable-xgetdefault also
makes it read that resource correctly - though I agree with you that
that's the wrong solution ultimately.

Thanks for the help.  Sorry if this is something really silly.

chris% rpm -q aterm
aterm-0.4.2-5
chris% aterm -version
aterm version 0.4.2 from 06 September 01                             
          (background image,XPM,utmp,menubar,transparency,fading,NeXT
scrollbar,XGetDefaults)

It's important to know what's in your ~/.Xresources file and what
"xrdb -query" reports after you have logged in, because your resources
are merged into the database. Loading just your file would remove the
other resources. I assume you have some desktop theme or
style-override activated, which activates other resources already,
e.g. *background and *foreground or XTerm resources you don't change
in your ~/.Xresources.

Oh, and I think ~/.Xdefaults is only mentioned because of aterm's age
and because older implementations of X might have it. The manual could
be patched to drop that for Fedora.

Thanks for the insight, I will patch the man-page to not include .Xdefaults for
the next version. Currently 1.00.beta2 is out so maybe this can wait till final
is released. Don't think its a critical bug...

OK.  Sorry for hassling you guys.  It was a bug in my understanding,
not in aterm.

Some startup script somewhere is setting:

*foreground:  #000000

I was under the impression that putting "Aterm*foreground" in my
.Xresources ought to override this, but it plainly isn't doing: if I
set "*foreground: yellow" I get yellow text in my aterm, etc., etc.,
irrespective of my "Aterm*foreground" setting.

However, setting aterm*foreground does override it.  I still don't
quite understand that, but that's my problem, not yours...

Sorry again for the hassle, and thanks for the help.