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]
23 The \fIwebcollage\fP program pulls random image off of the World Wide Web
24 and scatters them on the root window. One satisfied customer described it
25 as "a nonstop pop culture brainbath." This program finds its images by
26 doing random web searches, and extracting images from the returned pages.
27 It places the images on the root window by using the
34 \fIwebcollage\fP also works as a CGI program, that will add images to the
35 collage on a web page each time the page is loaded. See the comments at
36 the top of the source code for installation instructions.
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.
85 to get the default host and display number.
88 to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources
89 stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
92 .I /usr/dict/words \fRor\fP /usr/share/lib/dict/words
93 To find the random words to feed to search engines.
95 .I http://random.yahoo.com/bin/ryl, http://image.altavista.com/
96 To find random web pages.
98 When drawing on the root window, it always uses the default colormap.
99 This is actually a limitation of xv. But regardless, when using this
100 program with xscreensaver, it must be given the \fBdefault-n\fP
101 visual specification (see the
103 manual for more details.)
105 Only the GIF and JPEG image formats are supported.
107 Transparent and animating GIFs are not supported.
111 Too many of the images that it finds are text, not pictures. This is
112 because most of the web is pictures of text. Which is pretty sad.
115 .BR xscreensaver (1),
128 Copyright \(co 1998, 1999 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, modify,
129 distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is
130 hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear
131 in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice
132 appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the
133 suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without
134 express or implied warranty.
136 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 24-May-98.