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XANCUR(1.6)	   Talisman User Commands	  XANCUR(1.6)

NAME
       xancur - root cursor animation program for X

SYNOPSIS
       xancur  [-help]	[-display display] [-usleep microseconds]
       [-fg color] [-bg color] [-rv] [-script scriptname]  [-iter
       iterations] [cursorfile maskfile]...

DESCRIPTION
       The  xancur  program  allows the user to animate the back-
       ground ("root") cursor on a workstation display running X.
       Normally,  one  experiments  with xancur until one finds a
       pleasing, personalized look, then puts the xancur  command
       that  produces  it  into an X startup file.  If no options
       are specified, xancur will attempt to  read  a  scriptfile
       named  .xancur  in the user's home directory for a list of
       cursor/mask filenames.  Failing that, xancur will look for
       a  system  scriptfile defined at compilation --- see FILES
       below.
       xancur can also be used for program-to-user  communication
       (although this is really pushing things), by using a mean-
       ingful batch animation through a finite number  of  itera-
       tions  to indicate, for example, the completion of a batch
       job.  It can also run until the xancur process  is  killed
       by  a  catch  on the end of a task.  The program will not,
       however, pause another invocation of itself while running,
       so improper use could be less than esthetic.

OPTIONS
       The various options are as follows:

       -help  Print a usage message and exit.

       cursorfile maskfile
	      Filename	pairs  in  this form are used to set the
	      root cursor animation frame sequence.  The  enables
	      the  user to  specify the complete animation cycle
	      with standard cursor and mask bitmaps  as used  by
	      xsetroot(1).   Cursor  and  mask	files are bitmaps
	      (little  pictures),  and	can  be made  with   the
	      bitmap(1) program.   One	usually	 wants	the mask
	      files to be all black until one becomes more famil-
	      iar with the way masks work.

       -script scriptname
	      File scriptname contains commands (similar to those
	      used on the  the	command line)	and  either  cur-
	      sor/mask	filename  pairs or merely the name of the
	      cursor files to which .mask will be added to create
	      the maskfile names.

       -iter iterations
	      This  option  sets the number of iterations for the
	      complete	animation  loop.   If  left  unset,   the

X11R6			30 May 1994				1

XANCUR(1.6)	   Talisman User Commands	  XANCUR(1.6)

	      program will loop until interrupted.

       -fg color
	      Use color as the foreground color.

       -bg color
	      Use color as the background color.

       -rv    This  exchanges  the foreground and background col-
	      ors.  Normally the foreground color  is  black  and
	      the background color is white.

       -display display
	      Specifies the server to which to connect; see X(1).

       For convenience, xancur interprets the ~ (tilde) character
       in  the same way as that seen in the csh(1).  This is also
       true within scripts.

       It is not currently known precisely how many  frames  long
       an  animation loop can be.  User should probably be warned
       that, like many other aspects of customization, many  days
       can be lost in exploring such limits.

EXAMPLE
       To  have xancur	cycle through the two cursor/masks pairs
       for frames bm1 and bm2 one might run  the  following  com-
       mand.

	    xancur -usleep 400000 bm1 bm1.mask bm2 bm2.mask

       More  commonly,	one might run the following in the xancur
       source directory.

	    xancur -script animations/fourpoints/Script

SCRIPTS
       The scriptfiles may  contain  image/mask filename  pairs,
       image filenames with assumed .mask suffixes for mask file-
       names, and command switches.  The  command  switches  com-
       prise a subset of the command line options, and include:

       -script scriptname

       -fg color

       -bg color

       -rv

       It  is important to note that the dash-commands do not get
       saved or re-executed, but rather merely affect a particu-
       lar  cursor  construction.   One should also note that the

X11R6			30 May 1994				2

XANCUR(1.6)	   Talisman User Commands	  XANCUR(1.6)

       script below will only work with the requisite  X  bitmaps
       resident in the same directory as the script file.

       A  variation  of the default pointer, showing color rever-
       sal:

	      -bg white
	      -fg black
	      fourpoints0
	      fourpoints15
	      fourpoints30
	      fourpoints45
	      fourpoints60
	      fourpoints75
	      -rv
	      fourpoints0
	      fourpoints15
	      fourpoints30
	      fourpoints45
	      fourpoints60
	      fourpoints75

       It should be noted that any pathname within a script  file
       which is not a fully-rooted pathname will be resolved rel-
       ative to the script file's location rather  than relative
       to the current working directory.

NOTES
       Running	xancur tends to prevent one's X server from being
       swapped out as often.  This has	been  known  to signifi-
       cantly improve response time on some machines.

FILES
       /usr/lib/X11/xancur/Script		  default (system) script.
       $HOME/.xancur			default (personal) script.
       $HOME/.xinitrc	typical place for first xancur command.

SEE ALSO
       csh(1),	X(1),  xinit(1),  xset(1),  xsetroot(1), xrdb(1),
       XDefineCursor(3)

BUGS
       This version probably can't  handle  individual	files  of
       over 64K in length.

       The  program makes no use of the X resources for anything.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (c) 1993, 1994 Christopher Alexander North-Keys

       The X Consortium, and any party obtaining a copy of  these
       files  from  the X Consortium, directly or indirectly, is
       granted, free of charge, a full and unrestricted irrevoca-
       ble, world-wide, paid up, royalty-free, nonexclusive right

X11R6			30 May 1994				3

XANCUR(1.6)	   Talisman User Commands	  XANCUR(1.6)

       and license to deal in  this  software  and  documentation
       files  (the  "Software"), including without limitation the
       rights to use, copy, modify, merge,  publish,  distribute,
       sublicense,  and/or  sell  copies  of the Software, and to
       permit persons who receive copies from any such	party  to
       do so.  This license includes without limitation a license
       to do the foregoing actions under any patents of the party
       supplying this software to the X Consortium.

AUTHOR
       Christopher Alexander North-Keys, Group Talisman

       erlkonig@gnu.ai.mit.edu

       Special	thanks	to  Mark Lillibridge, MIT Project Athena,
       for having written the code for xsetroot(1), thanks to the
       other members of group Talisman for beta testing this pro-
       gram and offering comments, and thanks to Mic  Kaczmarczik
       (UT@Austin  CCWF)  for  proofreading  this  documentation,
       checking the  installation  process,  and  checking   the
       spelling of his surname.

X11R6			30 May 1994				4

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