NAME¶

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.

SYNOPSIS¶

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] [-rcfile file] [-command string] [-editorcommand string] [-mapmode * <L,C,S,D,E>] [-dateformat string1|string2|...] [-image file] [-clockimage file] [-mapimage file] [-zoomimage 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]

DESCRIPTION¶

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 one 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 one 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 one 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 one to modify interactively the list of shown cities and locations. - Option window. Allows one to reconfigure pretty much everything on the fly (colors, fonts, etc), exactly as with the command line options.

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.

-zoomimage *.jpg (or *.gif, *.png, *.vmf, *.xpm, *.xpm.gz)

Use specified file as image in the zoom widget

-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 one 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 accommodate 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 "/usr/lib/sunclock/emx -edit 0 -fn 9x15" (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)

PRIVATE CONFIGURATION FILE¶

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

HOW IT WORKS¶

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.

BUGS¶

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.

AUTHORS¶

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).