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
38 \fIwebcollage\fP is written in
43 accepts the following options:
46 Draw on the root window. This option is manditory: drawing to a window
47 other than the root window is not yet supported.
49 .B \-verbose \fRor\fP \-v
50 Print diagnostics to stderr. Multiple \fI-v\fP switches increase the
51 amount of output. \fI-v\fP will print out only the URLs of the
52 images; \fI-vv\fP will print all the commands being run; and \fI-vvv\fP
53 will print more than you care about.
55 .B \-delay \fIseconds\fP
56 How long to sleep between images. Default 1 second. (Remember that
57 this program probably spends a lot of time waiting for the network.)
59 .B \-background \fIcolor-or-ppm\fP
60 What to use for the background onto which images are pasted. This may be
61 a color name, a hexadecimal RGB specification in the form '#rrggbb', or
62 the name of a PPM file.
64 .B \-timeout \fIseconds\fP
65 How long to wait for a URL to complete before giving up on it and
66 moving on to the next one.
69 .B \-filter \fIcommand\fP
70 Filter all source images through this command. The command must take
71 a PPM file on stdin, and write a new PPM file to stdout. One good
72 choice for a filter would be:
74 webcollage -root -filter 'vidwhacker -stdin -stdout'
77 .B \-filter2 \fIcommand\fP
78 Filter the \fIcomposite\fP image through this command. The \fI-filter\fP
79 option applies to the sub-images; the \fI-filter2\fP applies to the
80 final, full-screen image.
82 .B \-http\-proxy \fIhost:port\fP
83 If you must go through a proxy to connect to the web, you can specify it
84 with this option, or with the \fB$http_proxy\fP or \fB$HTTP_PROXY\fP
85 environment variables.
90 to get the default host and display number.
93 to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources
94 stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
96 .B http_proxy\fR or \fPHTTP_PROXY
97 to get the default HTTP proxy host and port.
100 .I /usr/dict/words \fRor\fP /usr/share/lib/dict/words
101 To find the random words to feed to search engines.
103 .I http://random.yahoo.com/bin/ryl, http://image.altavista.com/
104 To find random web pages.
106 When drawing on the root window, it always uses the default colormap.
107 This is actually a limitation of xv. But regardless, when using this
108 program with xscreensaver, it must be given the \fBdefault-n\fP
109 visual specification (see the
111 manual for more details.)
113 Only the GIF and JPEG image formats are supported.
115 Transparent and animating GIFs are not supported.
119 Too many of the images that it finds are text, not pictures. This is
120 because most of the web is pictures of text. Which is pretty sad.
123 .BR xscreensaver (1),
138 Copyright \(co 1998, 1999 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, modify,
139 distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is
140 hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear
141 in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice
142 appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the
143 suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without
144 express or implied warranty.
146 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 24-May-98.