mosaic(6) mosaic(6)
22 January 1991
NAME
mosaic
SYNOPSIS
mosaic [-options ...]
DESCRIPTION
Mosaic is a simple adaption to X of the PC/MS-DOS game of the same
name.
Mosaic is played with a set of 81 two-by-two tiles on a 24-by-24
playing area. The objective of the game is to place your tiles such
that squares of the same pattern (color) are connected as much as
possible.
For the purposes of scoring, similarly patterned squares are connected
only if they share a side; touching diagonally on a corner doesn't
count.
Each of the 81 tiles is composed of four patterned squares. No two
tiles are the same, and each comes up once a game, in random order.
HOW TO PLAY
When playing mosaic, the next tile you have to play is shown in a
two-by-two window in the upper right corner of the mosaic window. By
moving the mouse pointer in the playing area window, you control where
that tile will be placed, as indicated by the outline which tracks the
mouse pointer. To place the piece, press any mouse button.
While playing, the following key commands are available:
q Quit mosaic
s Show (or hide, if it's already visible) the high scores window
h Help - show (or hide, if it's already visible) the help window.
When the help window is visible, no pieces may be placed.
n New game (only enabled when the current game is completed)
a Automatic - randomly place any remaining tiles
SCORING
After you place each tile, mosaic identifies all the connected regions
of similarly patterned squares. Each region then scores according to
the square of the number of squares in the region.
Mosaic displays the total score, the total score broken down by
pattern, and the amount those scores were improved by the most
recently played piece.
- 1 - Formatted: October 26, 2025
mosaic(6) mosaic(6)
22 January 1991
OPTIONS
-help Prints a brief help message.
-display display
Specifies the name of the X server to contact.
-expert By default, mosaic shows a "quick help" window upon startup.
When this flag is used, the "quick help" window is not shown
initially.
-color Causes mosaic to run in color mode (the default, except when
using StaticGray and GrayScale visuals).
-mono Causes mosaic to run in monochrome mode. When in monochrome
mode, only the foreground (-fg) and background (-bg) colors
are used (the default when using StaticGray and GrayScale
visuals).
-patterns
Causes mosaic to use patterned tiles (the default).
-solid Causes mosaic to use unpatterned (solid color) tiles. Probably
not a good idea if you're running in monochrome mode.
-gw number
Specifies the gutter width (in pixels).
-bw number
Specifies the border width (in pixels);
-fg color
Specifies the foreground color.
-bg color
Specifies the background color.
-bd color
Specifies the border color.
-c0 color
-c1 color
-c2 color
-c3 color
Specifies the colors used to draw the background and tiles in
the playing area.
-fn font
Specifies the font used for displaying text.
- 2 - Formatted: October 26, 2025
mosaic(6) mosaic(6)
22 January 1991
X DEFAULTS
Mono (type: boolean)
Specifies that mosaic should run in monochrome mode. The
default is False.
Expert (type: boolean)
When true, specifies that the "quick help" window should not
be shown upon startup. The default is False.
Solid (type: boolean)
Specifies that mosaic should use unpatterned (solid color)
tiles. The default is False.
GutterWidth (type: number)
Specifies the gutter width (in pixels).
BorderWidth (type: number)
Specifies the border width (in pixels).
Foreground (type: color)
Specifies the foreground color. The default is white.
Background (type: color)
Specifies the background color. The default is black.
BorderColor (type: color)
Specifies the border color. The default is white.
Color0 (type: color)
Specifies tile color zero. The default is white.
Color1 (type: color)
Specifies tile color one. The default is #c44.
Color2 (type: color)
Specifies tile color two. The default is #4c4.
Color3 (type: color)
Specifies tile color three. The default is #44c.
Font (type: color)
Specifes the font used for displaying text. The default is
-*-times-bold-r-*-*-*-180-*-*-*-*-*-*.
AUTHOR
Mosaic was written by Kirk Johnson <tuna@athena.mit.edu>. It is based
on Joshua Klayman's PC/MS-DOS shareware game of the same name. This
version is a complete rewrite encompasing only the basic functionality
of the original.
Bug reports and suggestions are welcome.
- 3 - Formatted: October 26, 2025
