Provided by: xdaliclock_2.44+debian-2_amd64 bug

NAME

       xdaliclock - melting digital clock

SYNOPSIS

       xdaliclock [-toolkitoption ...] [-option ...]

DESCRIPTION

       The  xdaliclock  program displays a digital clock; when a digit changes, it ``melts'' into
       its new shape.

       This program was inspired by the Alto and Macintosh programs of the same name, written  by
       Steve Capps in 1983 or 1984.

OPTIONS

       xdaliclock  accepts  all  of  the standard toolkit options, and also accepts the following
       options:

       -help   Print a brief summary of the allowed options on the standard error output.

       -12     Use a twelve hour clock.

       -24     Use a twenty-four hour clock.

       -seconds
               Update every second.

       -noseconds
               Update once per minute; don't display seconds at all.

       -cycle  Do color-cycling.

       -nocycle
               Don't do color-cycling.

       -font fontname
               Specifies the X font to use;  xdaliclock  can  correctly  animate  any  font  that
               contains  all  the  digits  plus  colon and slash, and in which the letters aren't
               excessively curly.

               The xdaliclock program also contains  four  builtin  bitmapped  fonts,  which  are
               larger  and more attractive than the standard X fonts.  One of these fonts will be
               used if the -font option is  given  one  of  the  fontnames  BUILTIN0,   BUILTIN1,
               BUILTIN2, or BUILTIN3.

       -builtin0
               This is the same as specifying -font BUILTIN0.

       -builtin1
               This is the same as specifying -font BUILTIN1.

       -builtin2 or -builtin
               This is the same as specifying -font BUILTIN2.

       -builtin3
               This is the same as specifying -font BUILTIN3.

       -fullscreen
               Make  the  window  take  up  the whole screen.  When -fullscreen is specified, the
               displayed time will wander around a little, to prevent any pixels  from  being  on
               continuously and causing phosphor burn-in.

       -root   Display the clock on the root window instead of in its own window.  This makes the
               digits wander around too.

       -window-id window
               Render the clock on a window created by some other program.

       -visual visual
               Specify which visual to use.  Legal values are:

               default Use the screen's default visual (the visual of the root window.)  This  is
                       the default.

               best    Use the visual which supports the most writable color cells.

               class   One  of  StaticGray,  StaticColor,  TrueColor,  GrayScale, PseudoColor, or
                       DirectColor.  Selects the deepest visual of the given class.

               number  A number (decimal or hex)  is  interpreted  as  a  visual  id  number,  as
                       reported  by  the  xdpyinfo(1)  program;  in  this  way  you  can select a
                       shallower visual if desired.

               If you don't have a 24-bit system, using a visual other than the default  one  may
               cause colormap flashing.

       -transparent
               Causes the background of the window to be transparent, if possible.

               If the server supports overlay planes, then they will be used (this is the case on
               SGIs, and on certain HP, DEC, and IBM systems.)

               If overlay planes are not available, but the server supports the Shape  extension,
               then that will be used instead.  However, the Shape extension is very inefficient:
               it will cause your X server to use up a lot of cycles.

               Also, if the Shape extension is used, you will probably  need  to  configure  your
               window  manager to not put a titlebar on the XDaliClock window.  (This is the case
               at least with twm, tvtwm, and mwm.)  If you don't do this, then  the  window  will
               flicker constantly, as the window manager tries to add and remove the titlebar ten
               times each second.

               None of these problems occur if overlay planes are used (or  if  the  -transparent
               option is not requested.)

       -nontransparent
               Don't make the window's background be transparent.  This is the default.

       -memory low
               Use  high-bandwidth,  low-memory mode.  If you have a very fast connection between
               the machine this program is running on and the X server it is displaying on,  then
               xdaliclock  can work correctly by simply making the drawing requests it needs when
               it needs them.  This is the elegant method.  However, the amount of data necessary
               to  animate  the display ends up being a bit over 10 kilobytes worth of X Protocol
               per second.  On a fast machine with a local  display,  or  over  a  fast  network,
               that's  almost  negligible, but (for example) an NCD X Terminal at 38.4 kbps can't
               keep up.  That is the reason for:

       -memory medium
               Use high-memory, low-bandwidth mode.  In this mode, xdaliclock precomputes most of
               the  frames  that  it  will  ever  need.   This  is the sleazy copout method.  The
               bandwidth requirements are drastically reduced, because  instead  of  telling  the
               server  what  bits to draw where, it merely tells it what pixmaps to copy into the
               window.  Aside from the fact that  I  consider  this  to  be  cheating,  the  only
               downside of this method is that those pixmaps (about 170 of them, each the size of
               one character) are consuming server-memory.  This probably isn't a very big  deal,
               unless you're using an exceptionally large font.

       -memory high
               With memory set to high, the cache is twice as large (the n -> n+2 transitions are
               cached as well as the n -> n+1 ones).   Even  with  memory  set  to  medium,  this
               program  can  seem sluggish when using a large font over a very slow connection to
               the display server.

       -countdown date
               Instead of displaying the current time, display a countdown to the specified  date
               (if  the date has already passed, count up from it.)  The date can take two forms:
               either a time_t (an integer, the number  of  seconds  past  "Jan  1  00:00:00  GMT
               1970");  or,  a  string  of  the  form "Mmm DD HH:MM:SS YYYY", for example, "Jan 1
               00:00:00 2000".  This string is interpreted in the local time zone.

               To count up from the current time, do this:
               xdaliclock -countdown "`date '+%b %d %T %Y'`"

       The following standard X Toolkit command line arguments are commonly used with xdaliclock:

       -display host:dpy
               This option specifies the X server to contact.

       -geometry geometry
               This option specifies the preferred size and position of the clock window.

       -bg color
               This option specifies the color to use for the  background  of  the  window.   The
               default is ``white.''

       -fg color
               This  option  specifies  the  color  to use for the foreground of the window.  The
               default is ``black.''

       -bd color
               This option specifies the color to use for the border of the window.  The  default
               is the same as the foreground color.

       -rv     This  option  indicates  that  reverse  video  should be simulated by swapping the
               foreground and background colors.

       -bw number
               This option specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding the window.

       -xrm resourcestring
               This option specifies a resource string to be used.

COMMANDS

       Clicking and holding any mouse button in the xdaliclock window will cause  it  to  display
       the date while the button is held.

       Typing  ``space''  at  the xdaliclock window will toggle between a twelve hour and twenty-
       four hour display.

       Typing ``q'' or ``^C'' at the window quits.

       If the xdaliclock window is iconified or otherwise unmapped, it will go to sleep until  it
       is mapped again.

X RESOURCES

       xdaliclock understands all of the core resource names and classes as well as:

       mode (class Mode)
               Whether  to  display  12-hour or 24-hour time.  If 12, this is the same as the -12
               command line argument; if 24, this is the same as -24.

       datemode (class DateMode)
               Specifies how the date should be printed when a mouse button is held  down.   This
               may  be  one  of  the strings mm/dd/yy, dd/mm/yy, yy/mm/dd, yy/dd/mm, mm/yy/dd, or
               dd/yy/mm.  The default is mm/dd/yy.  If seconds are not being displayed, then only
               the  first  four  digits  will  ever  be displayed (mm/dd instead of mm/dd/yy, for
               example.)

       seconds (class Seconds)
               Whether to display seconds.  If true, this is the same  as  the  -seconds  command
               line argument; if false, this is the same as -noseconds.

       cycle (class Cycle)
               Whether to do color cycling.  If true, this is the same as the -cycle command line
               argument; if false, this is the same as -nocycle.

       font (class Font)
               The same as the -font command line option: the font to melt.  If this  is  one  of
               the  strings  BUILTIN0,  BUILTIN1,  BUILTIN2,  or  BUILTIN3, then one of the large
               builtin fonts will be used.  Otherwise, this must be the name of a valid X font.

       fullScreen (class FullScreen)
               The same as the -fullscreen command-line option.

       root (class Root)
               The same as the -root command-line option.

       visualID (class VisualID)
               The same as the -visual command-line option.

       transparent (class Transparent)
               Whether to make the window's background be transparent,  if  possible.   If  true,
               this  is the same as the -transparent command line argument; if false, this is the
               same as -nontransparent.

       memory (class Memory)
               This must be high, medium, or low, the same as the -memory command-line option.

       countdown (class Countdown)
               Same as the -countdown command-line option.

ENVIRONMENT

       DISPLAY
           to get the default host and display number.

       XENVIRONMENT
           to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored  in  the
           RESOURCE_MANAGER property.

       TZ  to  get  the  current time zone.  If you want to force the clock to display some other
           time zone, set this variable before starting it.  For example:
            sh:   TZ=GMT0 xdaliclock
           csh:   ( setenv TZ PST8PDT ; xdaliclock )
           You may notice that the format of the TZ variable (which is  used  by  the  C  library
           ctime(3)  and  localtime(3) routines) is not actually documented anywhere.  The fourth
           character (the digit) is the only thing that really matters: it is the offset in hours
           from GMT.  The first three characters are ignored.  The last three characters are used
           to flag daylight savings time: their presence effectively adds 1 to the  zone  offset.
           (I am not making this up...)

BUGS

       Other  system  load  will sometimes cause the second-display to increment by more than one
       second at a time, in order to remain synchronized to the current time.

       The -memory option is disgusting and shouldn't be necessary, but I'm not clever enough  to
       eliminate  it.   It has been said that hacking graphics in X is like finding sqrt(pi) with
       roman numerals.

       When using a small font (less than 48x56 or so) it's possible that shipping  a  bitmap  to
       the  server  would  be  more  efficient  than  sending  a  DrawSegments request (since the
       endpoints are specified using 16 bits each, when all that we really need is 6 or 7 bits.)

       Support for the Shared Memory Extension would be a good thing.

       It should display the day of the week somewhere.

       The color cycling should be less predictable; it should vary saturation and  intensity  as
       well, and should be more careful that foreground and background contrast well.

       The correct default datemode should be extracted from the current locale.

       Should have a -analog mode (maybe someday...)

UPGRADES

       The latest version can always be found at https://www.jwz.org/xdaliclock/

       There is a version of this program for PalmOS available there as well.

SEE ALSO

       X(1), xrdb(1), xlsfonts(1), xclock(1), dclock(1), oclock(1), tclock(1), xscreensaver(1)

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright  © 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002 by Jamie Zawinski.
       Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its  documentation
       for  any  purpose  is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice
       appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear
       in  supporting  documentation.   No representations are made about the suitability of this
       software for any purpose.  It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

AUTHOR

       Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 18-sep-91.

       Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.

       Thanks to Ephraim Vishniac <ephraim@think.com> for explaining the  format  of  the  bitmap
       resources  in  the Macintosh version of this, so that I could snarf them for the -builtin3
       font.

       And thanks to Steve Capps for the really great idea.