1XDaliClock(1) General Commands Manual XDaliClock(1)
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6 xdaliclock - melting digital clock
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9 xdaliclock [-toolkitoption ...] [-option ...]
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12 The xdaliclock program displays a digital clock; when a digit changes,
13 it ``melts'' into its new shape.
14 This program was inspired by the Alto and Macintosh programs of the
16 same name, written by Steve Capps in 1983 or 1984.
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19 xdaliclock accepts all of the standard toolkit options, and also
20 accepts the following options:
21 -help Print a brief summary of the allowed options on the standard
23 error output.
24 -12 Use a twelve hour clock.
26 -24 Use a twenty-four hour clock.
28 -seconds
30 Update every second.
31 -noseconds
33 Update once per minute; don't display seconds at all.
34 -cycle Do color-cycling.
36 -nocycle
38 Don't do color-cycling.
39 -font fontname
41 Specifies the X font to use; xdaliclock can correctly animate
42 any font that contains all the digits plus colon and slash, and
43 in which the letters aren't excessively curly.
44 The xdaliclock program also contains four builtin bitmapped
46 fonts, which are larger and more attractive than the standard X
47 fonts. One of these fonts will be used if the -font option is
48 given one of the fontnames BUILTIN0, BUILTIN1, BUILTIN2, or
49 BUILTIN3.
50 -builtin0
52 This is the same as specifying -font BUILTIN0.
53 -builtin1
55 This is the same as specifying -font BUILTIN1.
56 -builtin2 or -builtin
58 This is the same as specifying -font BUILTIN2.
59 -builtin3
61 This is the same as specifying -font BUILTIN3.
62 -fullscreen
64 Make the window take up the whole screen. When -fullscreen is
65 specified, the displayed time will wander around a little, to
66 prevent any pixels from being on continuously and causing phos‐
67 phor burn-in.
68 -root Display the clock on the root window instead of in its own win‐
70 dow. This makes the digits wander around too.
71 -window-id window
73 Render the clock on a window created by some other program.
74 -visual visual
76 Specify which visual to use. Legal values are:
77 default Use the screen's default visual (the visual of the root
79 window.) This is the default.
80 best Use the visual which supports the most writable color
82 cells.
83 class One of StaticGray, StaticColor, TrueColor, GrayScale,
85 PseudoColor, or DirectColor. Selects the deepest vis‐
86 ual of the given class.
87 number A number (decimal or hex) is interpreted as a visual id
89 number, as reported by the xdpyinfo(1) program; in this
90 way you can select a shallower visual if desired.
91 If you don't have a 24-bit system, using a visual other than
93 the default one may cause colormap flashing.
94 -transparent
96 Causes the background of the window to be transparent, if pos‐
97 sible.
98 If the server supports overlay planes, then they will be used
100 (this is the case on SGIs, and on certain HP, DEC, and IBM sys‐
101 tems.)
102 If overlay planes are not available, but the server supports
104 the Shape extension, then that will be used instead. However,
105 the Shape extension is very inefficient: it will cause your X
106 server to use up a lot of cycles.
107 Also, if the Shape extension is used, you will probably need to
109 configure your window manager to not put a titlebar on the
110 XDaliClock window. (This is the case at least with twm, tvtwm,
111 and mwm.) If you don't do this, then the window will flicker
112 constantly, as the window manager tries to add and remove the
113 titlebar ten times each second.
114 None of these problems occur if overlay planes are used (or if
116 the -transparent option is not requested.)
117 -nontransparent
119 Don't make the window's background be transparent. This is the
120 default.
121 -memory low
123 Use high-bandwidth, low-memory mode. If you have a very fast
124 connection between the machine this program is running on and
125 the X server it is displaying on, then xdaliclock can work cor‐
126 rectly by simply making the drawing requests it needs when it
127 needs them. This is the elegant method. However, the amount
128 of data necessary to animate the display ends up being a bit
129 over 10 kilobytes worth of X Protocol per second. On a fast
130 machine with a local display, or over a fast network, that's
131 almost negligible, but (for example) an NCD X Terminal at 38.4
132 kbps can't keep up. That is the reason for:
133 -memory medium
135 Use high-memory, low-bandwidth mode. In this mode, xdaliclock
136 precomputes most of the frames that it will ever need. This is
137 the sleazy copout method. The bandwidth requirements are dras‐
138 tically reduced, because instead of telling the server what
139 bits to draw where, it merely tells it what pixmaps to copy
140 into the window. Aside from the fact that I consider this to
141 be cheating, the only downside of this method is that those
142 pixmaps (about 170 of them, each the size of one character) are
143 consuming server-memory. This probably isn't a very big deal,
144 unless you're using an exceptionally large font.
145 -memory high
147 With memory set to high, the cache is twice as large (the n ->
148 n+2 transitions are cached as well as the n -> n+1 ones). Even
149 with memory set to medium, this program can seem sluggish when
150 using a large font over a very slow connection to the display
151 server.
152 -countdown date
154 Instead of displaying the current time, display a countdown to
155 the specified date (if the date has already passed, count up
156 from it.) The date can take two forms: either a time_t (an
157 integer, the number of seconds past "Jan 1 00:00:00 GMT 1970");
158 or, a string of the form "Mmm DD HH:MM:SS YYYY", for example,
159 "Jan 1 00:00:00 2000". This string is interpreted in the local
160 time zone.
161 To count up from the current time, do this:
163 xdaliclock -countdown "`date '+%b %d %T %Y'`"
164 The following standard X Toolkit command line arguments are commonly
166 used with xdaliclock:
167 -display host:dpy
169 This option specifies the X server to contact.
170 -geometry geometry
172 This option specifies the preferred size and position of the
173 clock window.
174 -bg color
176 This option specifies the color to use for the background of
177 the window. The default is ``white.''
178 -fg color
180 This option specifies the color to use for the foreground of
181 the window. The default is ``black.''
182 -bd color
184 This option specifies the color to use for the border of the
185 window. The default is the same as the foreground color.
186 -rv This option indicates that reverse video should be simulated by
188 swapping the foreground and background colors.
189 -bw number
191 This option specifies the width in pixels of the border sur‐
192 rounding the window.
193 -xrm resourcestring
195 This option specifies a resource string to be used.
196
198 Clicking and holding any mouse button in the xdaliclock window will
199 cause it to display the date while the button is held.
200 Typing ``space'' at the xdaliclock window will toggle between a twelve
202 hour and twenty-four hour display.
203 Typing ``q'' or ``^C'' at the window quits.
205 If the xdaliclock window is iconified or otherwise unmapped, it will go
207 to sleep until it is mapped again.
208
210 xdaliclock understands all of the core resource names and classes as
211 well as:
212 mode (class Mode)
214 Whether to display 12-hour or 24-hour time. If 12, this is the
215 same as the -12 command line argument; if 24, this is the same
216 as -24.
217 datemode (class DateMode)
219 Specifies how the date should be printed when a mouse button is
220 held down. This may be one of the strings mm/dd/yy, dd/mm/yy,
221 yy/mm/dd, yy/dd/mm, mm/yy/dd, or dd/yy/mm. The default is
222 mm/dd/yy. If seconds are not being displayed, then only the
223 first four digits will ever be displayed (mm/dd instead of
224 mm/dd/yy, for example.)
225 seconds (class Seconds)
227 Whether to display seconds. If true, this is the same as the
228 -seconds command line argument; if false, this is the same as
229 -noseconds.
230 cycle (class Cycle)
232 Whether to do color cycling. If true, this is the same as the
233 -cycle command line argument; if false, this is the same as
234 -nocycle.
235 font (class Font)
237 The same as the -font command line option: the font to melt.
238 If this is one of the strings BUILTIN0, BUILTIN1, BUILTIN2, or
239 BUILTIN3, then one of the large builtin fonts will be used.
240 Otherwise, this must be the name of a valid X font.
241 fullScreen (class FullScreen)
243 The same as the -fullscreen command-line option.
244 root (class Root)
246 The same as the -root command-line option.
247 visualID (class VisualID)
249 The same as the -visual command-line option.
250 transparent (class Transparent)
252 Whether to make the window's background be transparent, if pos‐
253 sible. If true, this is the same as the -transparent command
254 line argument; if false, this is the same as -nontransparent.
255 memory (class Memory)
257 This must be high, medium, or low, the same as the -memory com‐
258 mand-line option.
259 countdown (class Countdown)
261 Same as the -countdown command-line option.
262
264 DISPLAY
265 to get the default host and display number.
266 XENVIRONMENT
268 to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global
269 resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
270 TZ to get the current time zone. If you want to force the clock to
272 display some other time zone, set this variable before starting it.
273 For example:
274 sh: TZ=GMT0 xdaliclock
275 csh: ( setenv TZ PST8PDT ; xdaliclock )
276 You may notice that the format of the TZ variable (which is used by
277 the C library ctime(3) and localtime(3) routines) is not actually
278 documented anywhere. The fourth character (the digit) is the only
279 thing that really matters: it is the offset in hours from GMT. The
280 first three characters are ignored. The last three characters are
281 used to flag daylight savings time: their presence effectively adds
282 1 to the zone offset. (I am not making this up...)
283
285 Other system load will sometimes cause the second-display to increment
286 by more than one second at a time, in order to remain synchronized to
287 the current time.
288 The -memory option is disgusting and shouldn't be necessary, but I'm
290 not clever enough to eliminate it. It has been said that hacking
291 graphics in X is like finding sqrt(pi) with roman numerals.
292 When using a small font (less than 48x56 or so) it's possible that
294 shipping a bitmap to the server would be more efficient than sending a
295 DrawSegments request (since the endpoints are specified using 16 bits
296 each, when all that we really need is 6 or 7 bits.)
297 Support for the Shared Memory Extension would be a good thing.
299 It should display the day of the week somewhere.
301 The color cycling should be less predictable; it should vary saturation
303 and intensity as well, and should be more careful that foreground and
304 background contrast well.
305 The correct default datemode should be extracted from the current
307 locale.
308 Should have a -analog mode (maybe someday...)
310
312 The latest version can always be found at http://www.jwz.org/xdali‐
313 clock/
314 There is a version of this program for PalmOS available there as well.
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318 X(1), xrdb(1), xlsfonts(1), xclock(1), dclock(1), oclock(1), tclock(1),
319 xscreensaver(1)
320
322 Copyright © 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002
323 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and
324 sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby
325 granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in
326 all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission
327 notice appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made
328 about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided
329 "as is" without express or implied warranty.
330
332 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 18-sep-91.
333 Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.
335 Thanks to Ephraim Vishniac <ephraim@think.com> for explaining the for‐
337 mat of the bitmap resources in the Macintosh version of this, so that I
338 could snarf them for the -builtin3 font.
339 And thanks to Steve Capps for the really great idea.
341X Version 11 11-Sep-2002 XDaliClock(1)