xenial (1) xdaliclock.1.gz

Provided by: xdaliclock_2.41-1_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 http://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  © 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.