Copyright 1984, 1988, 1990, 1993-1995 by Rick Jansen, all rights reserved.
X S N O W
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22 November 1995
Latest news:
------------
Version 1.40 features greatly improved performance on many X servers
when using a solid colored background (specified with the -bg option)
and with the parameter -solidbg specified.
Where to get Xsnow:
-------------------
Xsnow is available from the author's WWW page:
http://www.sara.nl/Rick.Jansen
Click on the appropriate item and the tar file will be downloaded
upon your request.
Xsnow is also archived at ftp.x.org in the contrib/games directory.
If all else fails you can get a new version from me by e-mail, as
an uuencoded and compressed tar-file. (email: rick@sara.nl)
How to compile:
---------------
xmkmf
make depend
make
For Silicon Graphics: the man page xsnow.z can be moved
to /usr/catman/u_man/cat1/X11/xsnow.z
VMS
---
This distribution contains a file 'make.com' to build Xsnow on
VMS systems, and 'xsnow.hlp'. To build type '@make' in the
xsnow directory. Another make.com is make2.com
Virtual window managers
-----------------------
For compatibility with virtual window managers Xsnow uses 'vroot.h',
an include file that makes X programs compatible with window managers
like swm and tvtwm. The complete vroot distribution is available from
'ftp.x.org' in the contrib directory as 'vroot.shar.Z'.
Vroot was written by Andreas Stolcke <stolcke@ICSI.Berkeley.EDU>, 9/7/90
and is copyright 1991 by Andreas Stolcke, copyright 1990 by Solbourne
Computer Inc.
Silicon Graphics IRIX 5.x
------------------------
Silicon Graphics and Irix 5.x users may not see any snow or
Santa at all, as long the desktop icons are visible. To
circumvent this problem issue this command:
/usr/lib/desktop/telldesktop quit
The icons will disappear and xsnow will work perfectly. To
restart the desktop just start /usr/lib/desktop/startdesktop
or select Desktop->Home Directory from the toolchest.
It's even possible to have both - desktop icons and xsnow
(and even multiple desks). You need to modify the window
manager's resource file 4DWm, the file
~/.desktop-`hostname`/4DWm.
Example:
*Global.backgroundDescription: -execute /etc/killall -TERM
xsnow ; /usr/local/bin/xsnow
*Desk 1.backgroundDescription: -execute /etc/killall -TERM
xsnow ; /usr/local/bin/xsnow
*Desk 2.backgroundDescription: -execute /etc/killall -TERM
xsnow ; /usr/local/bin/xsnow
Restart the he toolchest and Xsnow should appear. What this
does is stop the currently running Xsnow and start a new one
when you switch to another desktop.
HP and hp-ux:
-------------
HP also uses a Workspace Manager which may interfere with Xsnow.
If Xsnow does not appear:
In the "Style Manager", choose "Backdrop" and select "NoBackdrop".
You should now be able to run Xsnow.
Update history
--------------
1.22 Really building up snow at bottom of screen
1.22 A choice of Santa's. Thanks to Holger Veit (Holger.Veit@gmd.de)
for Santa no. 2. Santa 1 was derived from 2 by scaling down.
1.23 Aaaargh! gnu C doesn't like the initialization of the new
Santa pixmaps. Extra braces do the trick, which is so often the case
1.24 Deleted PaintSnowAtBottom. It's more of a surprise this way.
1.24 Bug removed with windows off-screen to the left
1.25 Rudolf's red nose. Silly. Grmbll.
1.25 Bug with -nokeepsnowonwindows removed
1.27 Bug with erasing snow on top of windows removed
Erasing of snow at bottom of screen improved in case of expose event
1.30 Performance improved. Wind.
1.31 Make.com and xsnow.hlp for VMS
1.32 unsigned long snowDelay changed to long, as strtoul is troublesome
1.35 Snow really builds up on windows now, and does not snow on pop-ups.
1.37 Offset for certain window managers like twm, nokeepsnowonwindows
and nokeepsnowonscreen are back.
1.38 Santa is a real snow plough now.
1.39 usSleep fixed for VMS. Bug resulted in using too much resources.
1.40 -solidbg for improved performance, memory leak fixed.
Copyright
---------
Xsnow is available freely and you may give it to other people as is,
but I retain all rights. Therefore it does not classify as 'Public
Domain' software.
Merry X-mas!
Rick Jansen
--
rick@sara.nl
