Table of Contents
sunclock - a fancy clock for the X Window system, providing local time
(legal time and solar time), sunrise, sunset and various geographical
data through a point and click interface.
sunclock [ options ]
where
the list of licit options is the following long list (starting from (**)
the options are configurable at runtime):
[-help] [-listmenu] [-version] [-citycheck]
[-display name] [-sharedir directory] [-citycategories value] [-clock] [-map]
[-dock] [-undock] [-menu] [-nomenu] [-selector] [-noselector] [-zoom] [-nozoom]
[-option] [-nooption] [-urban] [-nourban]
(**) [-language name] [-dateformat
string1|string2|...] [-rcfile file] [-command string] [-editorcommand string]
[-mapmode * <L,C,S,D,E>] [-image file] [-clockimage file] [-mapimage file]
[-clockgeom <geom>] [-mapgeom <geom>] [-auxilgeom <geom>] [-menugeom <geom>] [-selgeom
<geom>] [-zoomgeom <geom>] [-optiongeom <geom>] [-urbangeom <geom>] [-title name]
[-clockclassname name] [-mapclassname name] [-auxilclassname name] [-classname
name] [-setfont <field>|<fontsetting>{|<languages>}] [-verbose] [-silent] [-synchro]
[-nosynchro] [-zoomsync] [-nozoomsync] [-placement (random, fixed, center,
NW, NE, SW, SE)] [-placementshift x y] [-extrawidth value] [-decimal] [-dms]
[-city name] [-position latitude|longitude] [-addcity size|name|lat|lon|tz] [-removecity
name (name|lat|lon)] [-rootdx value] [-rootdy value] [-fixedrootpos] [-randomrootpos]
[-screensaver] [-noscreensaver] [-rootperiod value (in seconds)] [-animation]
[-noanimation] [-animateperiod value (in seconds)] [-progress number[s,m,h,d,M,Y]]
[-jump number[s,m,h,d,M,Y]] [-aspect mode] [-colorlevel level=0,1,2,3] [-fillmode
number=0,1,2] [-coastlines] [-contour] [-landfill] [-shading mode=0,1,2,3,4,5]
[-diffusion value] [-refraction value] [-night] [-terminator] [-twilight] [-luminosity]
[-lightgradient] [-nonight] [-darkness value<=1.0] [-colorscale number>=1] [-mag
value] [-magx value] [-magy value] [-dx value ] [-dy value] [-spotsizes s1|s2|s3|...
(0<=si<=4, 1<=i<=citycategories)] [-sizelimits w1|w2|w3|... (wi = zoom width values,
1<=i<=citycategories)] [-citymode mode=0,1,2,3] [-objectmode mode=0,1,2]
[-sun] [-nosun] [-moon] [-nomoon] [-tropics] [-notropics] [-meridianmode mode=0,1,2,3]
[-parallelmode mode=0,1,2,3] [-meridianspacing value] [-parallelspacing value]
[-dottedlines] [-plainlines] [-bottomline] [-nobottomline] [-reformat] [-vmfcolors
color1|color2|color3...] [-vmfrange a|b|c|d] [-vmfcoordformat format] [-vmfflags
integer] [-setcolor field|color]
sunclock is an X11 application
that displays a map of the Earth and shows the illuminated portion of the
globe. In addition to providing local time for the default timezone, it
also displays GMT time, legal and solar time of major cities, their latitude
and longitude, the mutual distances of arbitrary locations on Earth, the
position at zenith of Sun and Moon. Sunclock can display meridians, parallels,
tropics and arctic circles. It has builtin functions that accelerate the
speed of time and show the evolution of seasons. Sunclock can be internationalized
for various western languages. It is possible to customize the app-default
file and enter additional city entries.
Sunclock can commute between two
states, the "clock window" and the "map window". The clock window displays
a small map of the Earth and therefore occupies little space on the screen,
while the "map window" displays a large map and offers more advanced functions.
The Sunclock package includes a resizable and zoomable vector map . External
Earth maps can also be loaded (starting with version 3.51, formats .jpg,
.gif, .png, .xpm or .xpm.gz, .vmf can be read [.vmf is the specific vector map
format of sunclock]). Some additional formats could be added in the future.
The map window can work in five different modes:
- "Legal time" mode: legal
time of default time zone and GMT time are displayed.
- "Coordinate" mode:
by clicking on a city, users get coordinates (latitude, longitude) of
that city, legal time and sunrise/sunset.
- "Solar" mode: by clicking on
a point of the map (either a city or another point), solar time and day
length are shown.
- "Hour Extension" mode: displays solar times from 00:00
to 23:00 in bottom strip, according to the Sun position.
- "Distance" mode:
shows distances in km and miles between two arbitrary locations.
Depending
on the mode chosen, the bottom line shows a short text displaying the requested
information. The bottom line can be scrolled to the right or to the left
by pressing the PageUp/PageDown and Home/End key arrows.
A further functionality
is the "Progress" feature, which allows to accelerate the evolution of
time, so as to observe the evolution of day/night periods and seasons. By
default, the Sun and Moon are also shown on the map (rather, the positions
of Earth where Sun and Moon are at zenith are shown). Coordinates of meridians,
parallels, cities, the names of cities can be displayed on the map.
All
functionalities can be accessed though GUI actions on the main window or
the auxiliary windows. The main window is resizable by pulling the window
edges - as the current window manager permits it. There are 5 auxiliary
windows:
- Menu Window. This is the main menu, which offers a wide list of
actions. The menu window is launched by typing 'H' or clicking on the bottom
strip with the left mouse button once. Each action can be obtained by using
the indicated keyboard shortcut or by clicking with the mouse on the
corresponding entry. Upper/lower case is irrelevant, except for options
or actions which have more than 2 switches. Lower case then rotates the
switches in one direction, upper case in the other direction. For those
switches, the left mouse button will have the same effect as lower case,
and the right mouse button the same effect as upper case.
- File Selector
window. It can be accessed by clicking on the upper part of the main window
with the middle mouse button. It allows to select the Earth image file (in
formats *.vmf *.xpm, *.xpm.gz, *.jpg, *.gif, *.png) to be loaded.
- Zoom window.
It can be accessed by clicking on the upper part of the main window with
the right mouse button. The zoom window allows to select a specific area
on the Earth, to translate or zoom it up to 100 times. High resolutions
(larger than 10) are only recommended with the "huge" Earthmap of 11 Mbytes,
which offers clean images up to 20 times magnification at least.
- Urban
selector window. Allows to modify interactively the list of shown cities
and locations.
- Option window. Allows to reconfigure pretty much everything
on the fly (colors, fonts, etc), exactly as with the command line options.
The program does not use the Xt nor any other more advanced toolkit,
and hence only (!) those options explicitly enumerated below may be used.
The only needed resource is the list of coordinates and timezones of cities
to be displayed. The system administrator can possibly customize the system-wide
prepackaged config file Sunclockrc before installing the package, while
users can tweak their individual configuration file ~/.sunclockrc at any
time. The individual config file ~/.sunclockrc is read *after* the system
wide config file Sunclockrc, and therefore its settings override those
of the system wide config. The command line options can be used to override
~/.sunclockrc itself.
- -help
- Show brief help and exit.
- -listmenu
- Explanations
on the actions available from the builtin menu.
- -version
- Show program version
and exit.
- -verbose
- Make Sunclock verbose. The program then sends to stderr
some information on the internal operations performed. This is disabled
by default.
- -silent
- Make Sunclock silent about internal operations performed.
This is the default.
- -citycheck
- At start-up, check that there are no repetitions
in the list of cities (a city is considered to be repeated if it appears
twice under the same name, with coordinates differing by at most 0.5 degree).
By default no check is performed on Sunclockrc - which is supposedly correctly
set up...
- -display dispname
- Give the name of the X server to contact.
- -language
name
- Select language to be used in the sunclock menu and help.
- -title name
- Change the specification of the string which should appear in the title
bar of the main and auxiliary windows. Default is the application name,
i.e., sunclock.
- -classname name
- Change the specification of class application
name. Default is Sunclock. Other specifications can be passed so that aware
window managers might use it for configuration purposes. You might e.g. pass
-classname NoTitle-Sticky, and configure properly your WM so that it removes
the title bar, and make the window sticky with respect to the Desktop
Pager. With fvwm, you could use for instance
Style "*NoTitle*" NoTitle,
WindowListHit, Sticky
Style "*ShowTitle*" Title, WindowListHit, Slippery
Style "*Sticky*" Sticky
to specify such a behaviour.
- -setfont <field>|<fontsetting>{|<languages>}
- Select the font for the given text field (clockstrip, menustrip, city,
coord, menu). Optionally, one can specify a list of languages for which
this font setting should apply. If the <languages> option is not specified,
the font setting applies to all languages.
- -rcfile filename
- Read a configuration
file that is different from the user default ~/.sunclockrc (if this option
is not set, the user config file defaults to ~/.sunclockrc). Notice that
the app-default config file Sunclockrc is read first, and the file set
by the -rcfile option is read afterwards; therefore its settings override
those set by the system wide config file. Reading further config files
is possible at runtime, using the option window. Set -rcfile with a void
string "" if you wish to bypass the user config file step.
- -sharedir directory
- Set the directory where system wide shared Earthmaps are located. Default
is /usr/share/sunclock/earthmaps.
- -image *.jpg (or *.gif, *.png, *.vmf, *.xpm,
*.xpm.gz)
- Start sunclock with an Earth map image loaded in the clock and
map windows. The same map is then used for both windows, but the clock image
is usually scaled down.
- -mapimage *.jpg (or *.gif, *.png, *.vmf, *.xpm, *.xpm.gz)
- Start sunclock with an Earth map image loaded in the map window.
- -clockimage
*.jpg (or *.gif, *.png, *.vmf, *.xpm, *.xpm.gz)
- Start sunclock with an Earth
map image loaded in the clock window.
- -colorlevel level=0,1,2,3
- Sets the
color level (0=monochrome, 1=few colors, 2=many colors, 3=full colors).
With the "monochrome" setting, day and night appear respectively as mapbgcolor
(white by default) and mapfgcolor (black by default), and no shading is
available; all other features (city names, coordinates) appear also as
monochrome. With the "few colors" setting, the menus and city spots can
be represented with dedicated colors, but the meridians/parallels/tropics
are still monochrome. With the "many colors" oprions, meridians/parallels/tropics
can also be drawn in color. In these first 3 modes, only .vmf vector maps
can be loaded. These modes save a lot of CPU power - since a simple algorithm
of inversion of colors is used to set colors of all points in the map.
Monochrome mode can be useful for very slow CPUs, such as those in use
in PDAs with black and white screen. The full color mode (level=3) allows
to load jpeg or other colorful images; day and night can be drawn with
various shading parameters. This is the default and recommended mode if
you have a reasonably recent machine with enough video RAM.
- -dock
- This option
is meant to give sunclock the ability to be docked in the window manager
buttons or menu bar, providing that the WM offers this possibility without
requiring special hints (fvwm2 or windowmaker or afterstep will work perfectly
well for that purpose, KDE or Gnome won't...) Under the -dock option, sunclock
locks the size of the first launched window, which is necessarily a small
clock. Also, that initial window can no longer be closed by typing 'K' or
'Q'. (The only way to exit the application, then, is to kill it with xkill,
or to undock it first with the -undock option from the Option window). The
user might want to customize the size and suitable options so that sunclock
fits with the size of the dockable applets. As an example, sunclock could
be invoked as follows:
- sunclock -language fr -nobottomline -dock -clockgeom
63x42+2+190
- -dateformat "%H:%M:%S|%a%_%d%_%b|%b%_%Y|%j%_%U/52" -command "xdiary"
- -undock
- Undocks sunclock. This option has no other effect than reallowing
the use of options that were "frozen" under -dock. It can be used e.g. to
exit the application when sunclock has been started in dock mode.
- -synchro
- With this option, sunclock updates all windows simultaneously. This, of
course, requires more CPU time and may slow down sunclock's operation
if too many windows have been opened. The default is to update only the
active window.
- -nosynchro
- With this option, sunclock only updates the
active window. This is the default.
- -clock
- Start in the clock state. This is
the default and thus need not be specified.
- -dateformat string1|string2|...
- Set
the format(s) used in the text output in the bottom strip of the clock.
The default date format consists of 3 strings:
%H:%M%_%a%_%d%_%b%_%y|%H:%M:%S%_%Z|%a%_%j/%t%_%U/52
Here %H,%M,%S stand for hour, minutes, seconds, %a for dayname, %b for
monthname, %d for monthday number, %j for yearday number, %m for month
number, %y for year last two digits, %Y for year number, %t for number
of days in year (365 or 366), %Z for timezone, %U for week number (week
#1 is the week with the first thursday of the year); all other characters
are reproduced as such, except %_ which stands for a blank space, %% which
stands for % and %| which stands for |. The vertical bar | is used as a delimiter
to indicate successive time formats. There can be as many formats as desired,
and the actual selection cycles through all these formats by clicking on
the bottom strip with the mouse. The first string (i.e. the one preceding
the first bar) is taken as the default format. There are a few other switches,
such as %h for hour in 12-hour mode, %P fo AM/PM indicator, %G for hour
in GMT time, %N for minutes in GMT time.
- -map
- Start in the map state. Useful
to start right away with advanced functionalities.
- -decimal
- Initializes
coordinate values of geographical data in decimal degrees. However, this
can still be switched at runtime.
- -dms
- Initializes coordinate values of
geographical data in degrees, minutes and seconds. However, this can still
be switched at runtime.
- -menu
- Raise the menu window along with the main
(map, clock) window.
- -nomenu
- Don't raise the menu window along with the main
(map, clock) window. This is the default.
- -selector
- Raise the selector window
along with the main (map, clock) window.
- -noselector
- Don't raise the selector
window along with the main (map, clock) window. This is the default.
- -zoom
- Raise the zoom window along with the main (map, clock) window.
- -nozoom
- Don't raise the zoom window along with the main (map, clock) window. This
is the default.
- -option
- Raise the option window along with the main (map,
clock) window.
- -nooption
- Don't raise the option window along with the main
(map, clock) window. This is the default.
- -urban
- Raise the urban window along
with the main (map, clock) window.
- -nourban
- Don't raise the urban window
along with the main (map, clock) window. This is the default.
- -aspect mode
- Sets the aspect mode, i.e. the way by which zooming behaves with respect
to horizontal and vertical directions. Mode = 0 means that no synchronizations
are made, mode = 1 means that the zoom factors are always made to be equal,
mode = 2 (the more subtle one) means that the horizontal and vertical
zoom factors are adjusted so that the region located near the central point
of the zoomed area will be conformal to its actual geometry on Earth, i.e.
will not appear to be distorted horizontally or vertically. This won't be
true elsewhere, though, especially if the zoomed area is large.
- -zoomsync
- When the option is set, the zoom window will open in synchronization mode:
any zooming action made from the main map or from the zoom window will
take place as the mouse button is released (or as a key is pressed). This
is the default when the zoom window has not been opened (synchronization
is automatically set).
- -nozoomsync
- When set, the zoom window will open in
non-synchro mode. Synchronizing the zoom will still be possible, though,
by clicking on the "Synchro" button. By default, synchronization does not
occur when the zoom window is opened, unless option -zoomsync has been set.
- -mapmode * (single character = C, D, E, L or S)
- Start the map functions
in mode (C)oordinates, (D)istances, hour (E)xtension, (L)egal time or (S)olar
time respectively. Any other specification is ignored. Default is legal
time mode.
- -placement <choice> (random,fixed,center,NW,NE,SW,SE)
- Specify whether
commuting between clock and map windows should proceed with letting the
the window centers, respectively, the NW, NE, SW, SE corners fixed, or
rather whether it should operate randomly, or through user defined placement.
Default is NW placement.
- -placementshift x y
- Relative displacement <clock window>
--> <map window>, to apply with respect to the -placement specification. If placement
is NW, then the NW window corner will move by (x,y) pixels. Defaut is (0,0),
i.e. no modification to apply to the -placement specification.
- -extrawidth value
- When using the 'enlarge window' command specified by key '>', the width of the
full X display is used, minus some default width equal to 10 pixels. This
is enough the accomodate the width of window borders of most window managers.
In case it is not, -extrawidth <value> can be used to change this setting.
- -clockgeom (width)x(height)+(xcoord)+(ycoord)
- Specify the geometry of the
clock window, i.e. its size and position (absolute position with respect
to the left upper corner of the screen).
- -mapgeom (width)x(height)+(xcoord)+(ycoord)
- Specify the geometry of the map window, i.e. its size and position (absolute
position with respect to the left upper corner of the screen).
- -menugeom
+(xcoord)+(ycoord)
- Specify the relative position (x = horizontal shift,
y = vertical shift) of the menu window with respect to the main window,
starting from the bottom edge of the main window (from its top edge in
case of SW or SE placements, see above). The y value may need an adjustment,
according to the height of the title bar allocated by the window manager,
if any. In the case of the menu window, width and height solely depend
on the menufont, and therefore any given specification of width and height
is ignored. The default relative position is x = 0, y = 30.
- -selgeom (width)x(height)+(xcoord)+(ycoord)
- Specify the geometry of the selector window. The position specification
is relative to the main window (or to the menu, when the menu is raised).
See above option -menugeom for further explanations. The default geometry
of the selector window is 600x180+0+30.
- -zoomgeom (width)x(height)+(xcoord)+(ycoord)
- Specify the geometry of the zoom window. The position specification is
relative to the main window (or to the menu, when the menu is raised). See
above option -menugeom for further explanations. The default geometry of
the zoom window is 500x320+0+30.
- -optiongeom (width)x(height)+(xcoord)+(ycoord)
- Specify the geometry of the option window. The position specification is
relative to the main window (or to the menu, when the menu is raised). See
above option -menugeom for further explanations. The height specification
depends solely on the selected menufont and is therefore ignored. The default
geometry of the option window is 630x80+0+30.
- -urbangeom +(xcoord)+(ycoord)
- Specify the relative position (x = horizontal shift, y = vertical shift)
of the urban window with respect to the main window (or to the menu, when
the menu is raised). See above option -menugeom for further explanations.
- -auxilgeom +(xcoord)+(ycoord)
- Specify the relative position (x = horizontal
shift, y = vertical shift) of the auxiliary windows (menu, zoom, selector,
option). All relative displacements are set to (x,y).
- -mag value
- Rescale
the image by a magnification factor equal to <value>, which must be at least
equal to 1.0. This means that the window only shows a fraction of the entire
map namely, 1/<value> x 1/<value>. Default value is 1.0.
- -magx value
- Same as for
the -mag option, but only the x direction (width) is rescaled. Default value
for magx is 1.0.
- -magy value
- Same as for the -mag option, but only the y direction
(height) is rescaled. Default value for magy is 1.0.
- -dx value (degrees)
- Options
-dx and -dy allow to set the longitude, respectively the latitude, of the
city or location at which the zoom area should be centered. The values should
be given in degrees. Default (dx,dy) is (0.0,0.0).
- -dy value (degrees)
- See
-dx above.
- -coastlines
- In the builtin vector map, generate coast lines without
filling the land areas.
- -contour
- As before, but use a smart algorithm which
eliminates lines, especially at lower resolutions (in case the coasts are
very irregular, some parts may disappear but the overall picture looks
sharper).
- -landfill
- In the builtin vector map, fill the land areas without
generating coast lines.
- -fillmode 0,1,2
- Fillmode=0 is equivalent to -coastlines,
fillmode=1 is equivalent to -contour, and fillmode=2 is equivalent to -landfill.
- -dottedlines
- Use dotted lines to represent meridians and parallels.
- -plainlines
- Use plain lines to represent meridians and parallels.
- -bottomline
- Draw
a line at the bottom of the map, to separate the map from the text strip
showing time and coordinates.
- -nobottomline
- Don't draw the bottom line. This
is the default.
- -command string
- Specify an external action or program that
will be called through keyboard shortcut 'x'. Default is empty command.
- -editorcommand
string
- Specify an external file editor program that will be called through
keyboard shortcut double 'h' (call help). Default is "emx -edit 0" (included
emx editor, in no-edit mode...)
- -jump number[unit] (where unit=s,m,h,d,M,Y)
- Number of seconds (respectively minutes, hour, days, Months, Years) by
which the current date and time should be shifted. No blank space should
separate the number and its unit. If the unit is absent, the number is
understood to be expressed by default in seconds. Useful to get sunclock
display information on earlier or later epochs.
- -progress number[unit] (where
unit=s,m,h,d,M,Y)
- Number of seconds (respectively minutes, hour, days,
Months, Years) by which the time progression should operate. No blank space
should separate the number and its unit. If the unit is absent, the number
is understood to be expressed by default in seconds. Useful to get sunclock
progress by other steps than the predefined ones (by default the steps
cycle between the values 1 mn, 1 hour, 1 day, 7 days, 30 days).
- -rootdx
value (between 0.0 and 1.0)
- Options -rootdx and -rootdy allow to set the position
where the sunclock map is copied on the root window in rootwindow or screensaver
modes. '-rootdx 0.0' means on the left side, '-rootdx 1.0' on the right side,
'-rootdy 0.0' means at the top, '-rootdy 1.0' at the bottom of the root window.
Default is 0.5 for both values, i.e. a centered map.
- -rootdy value (degrees)
- See -rootdx above.
- -fixedrootpos
- Use the above rootdx and rootdy values to
fix the position of the map on the root window. This is the default unless
-screensaver has been specified.
- -randomrootpos
- Instead of using the above
rootdx and rootdy values to fix the position of the map on the root window,
just use a random position instead. This is the default in case the -screensaver
option has been set.
- -screensaver
- Start sunclock in screensaver mode (no
window nor any GUI controls are available in that case, and the only way
to terminate the program is to kill it explicitly).
- -noscreensaver
- Do not
start sunclock in screensaver mode. This is the default.
- -rootperiod value
(in seconds, between 1 and 120 sec)
- Set the period for refreshing the root
window. Default is 30 seconds. This takes effect only when writing the map
onto the root window is active (strike twice on '[' or hit the relevant box
in the Option window). Writing onto the root window is disabled by using
the ']' key.
- -animation
- Start the animation mode right away when sunclock
is launched.
- -noanimation
- Don't start the animation mode when sunclock is
launched - this is the default. Sunclock can anyway switch between the animation/noanimation
modes by typing key ' (apostrophe) at runtime.
- -animateperiod value (in seconds,
between 0 and 5 sec)
- Set the period for animating the map. Default is 0
seconds, which means that images are switched as fast as sunclock can compute
them. Otherwise time is shifted by the current progress value (as set by
the -progess option) after waiting the number of seconds prescribed by the
animateperiod value. This takes effect only when the animation is active
(strike on the ' key or hit the relevant box in the Option window).
- -addcity
size|name|latitude|longitude|timezone
where name is the ascii name of the place
to be shown on the map. The first argument "size" is an nonnegative integer
meant to indicate the size of the city (1: major city, 2: important city,
3: less important city, ...). The argument "size" can also be set to 0, with
the effect of hiding the corresponding city, while keeping in memory all
of its other parameters. The city can then be shown again with Latitude
and longitude are floating point numbers representing the geographical
location of the place. Western longitudes and southern latitudes should
be entered as negative numbers. timezone is the name of the timezone that
the place is in. This should be the name of a file under /usr/share/zoneinfo
(or whatever directory is used on your system), incorrect timezones cause
the clock to display GMT. It is also possible to reference a file in a directory
relative to /usr/share/zoneinfo for example Canada/Eastern instead of EST5EDT.
- -city name (name|lat|lon)
- Initialize program so as to display data of city
'name', respectively (name, with latitude and longitude specified). This becomes
effective only if the above mentioned city is listed in the systemwide
RC file Sunclockrc or in the user's private ~/.sunclockrc. The operating mode
is set to Coordinates mode.
- -position latitude|longitude
- Initialize program
so as to display data of the position specified by two coordinates (in
degrees). The operating mode is set to Solar time mode. Notice that with
a vertical bar | (a blank space is also admitted instead of a |).
- -addcity
size|name|lat|lon|tz
- Adds a city in the list of cities to be displayed on the
map. They must be defined by exactly 5 parameters: size, name, latitude,
longitude, timezone, in this order, with parameters being separated by
a vertical bar |. Blank characters may appear in the name if double quotes
are used to mark the group of parameters (but there shouldn't be any blank
characters in the other parameters). In the RC config file, blank characters
should be replaced by the octal character 037 (i.e. Ctrl-Q Ctrl-_ within emacs).
- -removecity name (name|lat|lon)
- Removes name (respectively name|lat|lon) from
the list of cities to be displayed. Same remarks as above for blank characters.
- -citycategories value
- Specifies the maximal number of city categories: categories
range from 1 (highest catgory, i.e. major city) to some maximum number. The
option -citycategories specifies that maximum number. It can only be used
at start-up, not at runtime. The default value is 5.
- -spotsizes s1|s2|s3|... (0<=si<=5,
1<=i<=citycategories)
- With this setting, major cities (category 1) will be
represented by the symbol of size s1, category 2 cities by the symbol
off size s2, etc. The default setting is -spotsize 1|2|3|4|5. Assigning size
si=0 means that the corresponding category of cities (rank i) will not
be displayed. If there are less data than the number of city categories
(5 by default), the last given data is repeated as many times as needed,
e.g. -spotsizes 2 is equivalent to -spotsizes 2|2|2|2|2. Example: specifying -spotsizes
0|2|0|3|0 will let appear only city categories 2 and 4, but those of category
4 will appear with the symbol normally allocated to cities of category
3. This is useful in combination with the option -sizelimits (see below).
- -sizelimits w1|w2|w3|...
- (wi = zoom width values, 1<=i<=citycategories) With this
setting, cities of rank i=1,2,3,... will appear if (and only if) the width
of the zoomed map is at least equal to wi (as it would appear if the Earth
would be entirely displayed...) . The default is 0|580|2500|6000|12000 (no constraint
for major cities, rank 4 cities appear only if the width is at least 6000
pixels, e.g. if an original window of width 800, say, has been applied a
zoom at least equal to 7.5). Thus -sizelimits 0 is equivalent to -sizelimits
0|0|0|0|0, -sizelimits 0|400 is equivalent to -sizelimits 0|400|400|400|400.
- -shading
mode=0,1,2,3,4,5
- Start sunclock with the specified shading mode. Mode 0
means that the night area is not displayed. In higher modes, the night area
is displayed, with increasingly sophisticated shading algorithms. Mode 1
stands for no shading (i.e. just bright and dark colors are shown). Mode 2
shades the terminator area -- the area in which the sun is partially hidden
by the horizon. Mode 3 shades the region in which there is still substantial
luminosity left after sunset (depending on the diffusion parameter below).
Default is 3° below horizon. Mode 4 additionally represents the luminosity
values in all parts of the illuminated area. Mode 5 represents the gradient
of luminosity from the brightest area (facing the sun) to the darkest area
(opposite to the sun); this has nothing to do, though, with the actual
luminosity values.
- -nonight
- Start sunclock with the night region not drawn.
This is equivalent to -shading 0.
- -night
- Start sunclock with the night region
in plain shading mode. This is equivalent to -shading 1.
- -terminator
- Equivalent
to -shading 2
- -twilight
- Equivalent to -shading 3
- -luminosity
- Equivalent
to -shading 4
- -lightgradient
- Equivalent to -shading 5
- -diffusion value (degrees)
- Sets the amplitude of the area in which diffusion of light in the atmosphere
is still sufficient to keep some luminosity after sunset. Default is 3 degrees.
- -refraction value (degrees)
- Sets the value of the refraction angle for tangential
sun rays at sunset. This is related to the fact that the sun sometimes looks
bigger at sunset. Changing the refraction degree slightly affects the computation
of sunrise and sunset times. Default is 0.1 degree.
- -darkness value (in the
range 0.0 ... 1.0)
- Sets the constrast between day and night areas. A 0.0 value
means that the night area will not be distinguishable from day, while
1.0 means that it will be completely black. Default is 0.5.
- -colorscale value (integer
in the range 1 ... 256)
- Sets the number of color subdvisions which will be
in use for producing shading, that is, the number of colors ranging from
bright colors (day) to dark colors (night). Default is 16.
- -meridianmode mode=0,1,2,3
- Start sunclock with meridians displayed or not, according to the mode,
mode=0 : no meridians, mode=1 : meridians drawn, mode=2 : meridians drawn
with labels at the bottom, mode=3 : meridians drawn with labels at the
top. The default mode is 0 (no meridians).
- -parallelmode mode=0,1,2,3
- Start
sunclock with parallels displayed or not, according to the mode, mode=0
: no parallels, mode=1 : parallels drawn, mode=2 : parallels drawn with
labels at the left hand side, mode=3 : parallels drawn with labels at
the right hand side. The default mode is 0 (no parallels).
- -meridianspacing
value (degree)
- Specify how many degrees (or fractions of degree) should
separate meridians drawn on the map.
- -parallelspacing value (degree)
- Specify
how many degrees (or fractions of degree) should separate parallels drawn
on the map.
- -citymode mode=0,1,2,3
- Start sunclock with cities displayed or
not, according to the mode, mode=0 : no cities, mode=1 : cities drawn,
mode=2 : cities drawn with their names, mode=3 : cities drawn with their
coordinates. The default mode is 1 (cities shown without names or coordinates).
- -tropics
- Start sunclock with tropics and arctic circles displayed (by default,
they aren't).
- -sun
- Start sunclock with the Sun position displayed (by default,
it is).
- -moon
- Start sunclock with the Moon position displayed (by default,
it is).
- -notropics -nosun -nomoon
- These options just negate the above ones.
- -objectmode mode=0,1,2
- Mode=0 stands for no objects (Sun, Moon) at all,
mode=1 for objects just drawn by their symbol, mode=2 for objects drawn
with their symbol and coordinates in decimal degrees (or degrees, minutes,
seconds, using the ° key switch).
- -reformat
- This option only produces an effect
when a *.vmf file is loaded. The file is then reformatted according to the
allowed syntax and normal line length, and printed to stdout. To capture
the aoutput, one should redirect the standard output to a file (with a
'> file' as usual).
- -vmfcolors color1|color2|color3...
- Redefine the list of colors
to be used in the .vmf file. This option has no effect when loading files
with other formats. Default is NULL string (so that the default colors are
loaded). The string "|" is also considered to be a void string and can be
used in the option widget to enforce default colors back.
- -vmfrange a|b|c|d
- Define the range in which point coordinates (latitude, longitude) should
vary in the *.vmf files, default is -90|90|-180|180. This option can be useful
in combination with -reformat to make a linear change of coordinates in
a *.vmf file.
- -vmcoordformat format
- Set the format for the output of double
values produced via the -reformat option. The default format is "%7.3f %8.3f"
(format for latitude and longitude, respectively), unless the -vmfrange
has been modified, in which case the default becomes "%g %g" (from the
POSIX rules, this stands for 6 significant digits in any position).
- -vmfflags
number
- Sets the flags (integer value) for a *.vmf file. Each bit is a distinct
flag. The zeroth order bit (i.e. &1) determines whether features which have
their own zeroth bit set are to be drawn in clock window mode (if the zeroth
bit is not set, the feature will always be drawn). Other bits are used
to control whether given features are to be drawn or not. For instance setting
-vmfflags 2 with timezones.vmf will let the timezone regions appear, while
-vmfflags 6 will also show the timezone boundary lines. (Only bits 0, 1,
2 are currently used in timezones.vmf).
- -setcolor field|color
- Sets the color
of a specified field in the sunclock widgets. The color can be specified
as any litteral value (red, yellow, etc..., as defined in the resource file
rgb.txt), or as a 6 digit hexadecimal value #ijklmn, or even 12 digits
(for 48 bits displays!) The field can take any of the following values
(between parentheses, the meaning and default value):
clockbg (clock background
color; White)
clockfg (clock foreground color; Black)
mapbg (map background
color; White)
mapfg (map foreground color; Black)
menubg (menu text background
color; Grey92)
menufg (menu text foreground color; Black)
buttonbg (button
background color; Grey84)
buttonfg1 (button very dark border color ; Black)
buttonfg2 (button dark border color ; Grey50)
buttonfg3 (button light border
color ; Grey95)
buttonfg4 (button very light border color ; White)
weak
(color for disabled menu commands; Red)
clockstripbg (background color
of bottom strip in clock window; Grey92)
clockstripfg (foreground color
of bottom strip in clock window; Black)
mapstripbg (background color of
bottom strip in map window; Grey92)
mapstripfg (foreground color of bottom
strip in map window; Black)
zoombg (background color of the small monochrome
map used in the zoom widget; White)
zoomfg (foreground color of the small
monochrome map used in the zoom widget; Black)
optionbg (background color
of option text entry; White)
optionfg (foreground color of option text
entry; Black)
caret (color of text caret; SkyBlue2)
change (color for temporary
changes; Brown)
choice (color for selected changes and choices; SkyBlue2)
directory (color of text indicating directory entries; Blue)
image (color
of text indicating image files; Magenta)
cityname (color of text indicating
city names; Red)
city0 (color of unmarked cities; Orange)
city1 (color
of marked cities, main selection; Red)
city2 (color of marked cities, secondary
selection; Red3)
mark1 (color of first mark; Pink1)
mark2 (color of secondary
mark; Pink2)
line (color of geodesic lines; White).
meridian (color of meridians;
White).
parallel (color of parallels; White).
tropic (color of Equator/Tropics/Arctic
circles; White)
sun (color of Sun; Yellow)
moon (color of Moon; Khaki)
star (color of Stars; White)
root (color of Root window on which stars
will be drawn; Black)
Users may keep a file in
their home directory called ~/.sunclockrc. This file can contain specify
any number of options which are also available as command line options:
mapmode: L
language: en
city: Washington
map
mapimage: /usr/share/sunclock/earthmaps/jpeg/caida.jpg
tropics
twilight
sunclock calculates the position of the Sun
using the algorithm in chapter 18 of:
Astronomical Formulae for Calculators
by Jean Meeus, Third Edition, Richmond: Willmann-Bell, 1985.
and projects
the illuminated area onto the map image by an equidistributed (latitude,
longitude) cylindrical projection. The Sun's position is calculated to
better than one arc-second in accuracy.
Sunclock makes intensive use
of pointers and memory allocation/deallocation, so memory leaks might still
be possible under some circumstances. However, the program has been thoroughly
debugged, and crashes seem to be rather rare. As new features are introduced,
older ones may become broken during the phase of development :-(
The illuminated
area shown is the area which would be sunlit if the Earth atmosphere would
be absolutely uniform. The actual illuminated area may depend on weather,
temperature, atmospheric refraction and diffusion, etc.
John Walker,
Autodesk, Inc., <kelvin@acad.uu.NET>, wrote the original Suntools program from
which sunclock is derived.
John Mackin, Basser Department of Computer Science,
University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, <john@cs.su.oz.AU>, wrote the X11 version
out of Suntools.
Stephen Martin, Fujitsu Systems Business of Canada, smartin@fujitsu.ca,
added support for interactive map.
Jean-Pierre Demailly, Université de Grenoble
I, demailly@fourier.ujf-grenoble.fr worked out versions 3.xx, which add many
new major features (loading maps, shading, zoom functionalities, configuration
of options on the fly at runtime, through a point and click GUI interface).
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