14 .TH XScreenSaver 1 "17-Jun-99" "X Version 11"
16 webcollage - decorate the screen with random images from the web
19 [\-display \fIhost:display.screen\fP] [\-root] [\-verbose]
20 [\-delay \fIsecs\fP] [\-timeout \fIsecs\fP] [\-background \fIbg\fP]
21 [\-filter \fIcommand\fP] [\-filter2 \fIcommand\fP]
22 [\-http\-proxy host[:port]]
24 The \fIwebcollage\fP program pulls random image off of the World Wide Web
25 and scatters them on the root window. One satisfied customer described it
26 as "a nonstop pop culture brainbath." This program finds its images by
27 doing random web searches, and extracting images from the returned pages.
28 It places the images on the root window by using the
35 \fIwebcollage\fP is written in
40 accepts the following options:
43 Draw on the root window. This option is manditory: drawing to a window
44 other than the root window is not yet supported.
46 .B \-verbose \fRor\fP \-v
47 Print diagnostics to stderr. Multiple \fI-v\fP switches increase the
48 amount of output. \fI-v\fP will print out only the URLs of the
49 images; \fI-vv\fP will print all the commands being run; and \fI-vvv\fP
50 will print more than you care about.
52 .B \-delay \fIseconds\fP
53 How long to sleep between images. Default 1 second. (Remember that
54 this program probably spends a lot of time waiting for the network.)
56 .B \-background \fIcolor-or-ppm\fP
57 What to use for the background onto which images are pasted. This may be
58 a color name, a hexadecimal RGB specification in the form '#rrggbb', or
59 the name of a PPM file.
61 .B \-timeout \fIseconds\fP
62 How long to wait for a URL to complete before giving up on it and
63 moving on to the next one.
66 .B \-filter \fIcommand\fP
67 Filter all source images through this command. The command must take
68 a PPM file on stdin, and write a new PPM file to stdout. One good
69 choice for a filter would be:
71 webcollage -root -filter 'vidwhacker -stdin -stdout'
74 .B \-filter2 \fIcommand\fP
75 Filter the \fIcomposite\fP image through this command. The \fI-filter\fP
76 option applies to the sub-images; the \fI-filter2\fP applies to the
77 final, full-screen image.
79 .B \-http\-proxy \fIhost:port\fP
80 If you must go through a proxy to connect to the web, you can specify it
81 with this option, or with the \fB$http_proxy\fP or \fB$HTTP_PROXY\fP
82 environment variables.
87 to get the default host and display number.
90 to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources
91 stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
93 .B http_proxy\fR or \fPHTTP_PROXY
94 to get the default HTTP proxy host and port.
97 .I /usr/dict/words \fRor\fP /usr/share/lib/dict/words
98 To find the random words to feed to search engines.
100 .I http://random.yahoo.com/bin/ryl, http://image.altavista.com/
101 To find random web pages.
103 When drawing on the root window, it always uses the default colormap.
104 This is actually a limitation of xv. But regardless, when using this
105 program with xscreensaver, it must be given the \fBdefault-n\fP
106 visual specification (see the
108 manual for more details.)
110 Only the GIF and JPEG image formats are supported.
112 Transparent and animating GIFs are not supported.
116 Too many of the images that it finds are text, not pictures. This is
117 because most of the web is pictures of text. Which is pretty sad.
120 .BR xscreensaver (1),
133 Copyright \(co 1998, 1999 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, modify,
134 distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is
135 hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear
136 in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice
137 appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the
138 suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without
139 express or implied warranty.
141 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 24-May-98.