togeomview(1gv) [debian man page]
TOGEOMVIEW(1gv) TOGEOMVIEW(1gv) NAME
togeomview - send commands or OOGL objects to geomview SYNOPSIS
togeomview [-c] [-g] [pipename [program args ...]] DESCRIPTION
togeomview sends a stream of geomview commands, or OOGL-format geometric data, to a cooperating copy of geomview. If geomview is not run- ning, it is automatically started. ('geomview' must be on the $PATH of the user running 'togeomview' in order for this to work.) Typical usage is: someprogram | togeomview (to send commands) or someprogram-generating-OOGL-data | togeomview -g (to send geometry) i.e. a program pipes geometric data into ``togeomview''; the data is displayed by a copy of geomview run with the -M option and a name matching the one given to togeomview. Togeomview uses a named pipe in the directory /tmp/geomview to communicate with geomview. If unspecified, the pipe's default name is "OOGL". When sending geometry (-g), a geomview object with the same name as the pipe appears in geomview's object browser. By default, when no suitable copy of geomview is running, togeomview invokes "geomview" with arguments specifying the appropriate named pipe. A different command may be specified as in: togeomview OOGL gv -wpos 300x300 -c my_startup_script which communicates through a pipe named OOGL, and (if necessary) invokes the given gv command. The pipe name is required if a command is specified. After togeomview has created it, the named pipe may be written as an ordinary file. For example, one could use togeomview pipename < /dev/null to invoke a listening copy of geomview, and then run a program which simply wrote to /tmp/geomview/pipename. FILES
/tmp/geomview BUGS
The pipe-based communications scheme imposes several restrictions. If no copy of geomview is reading from the pipe, or if geomview gets far enough behind, a program writing data to ``togeomview'' will be forced to block after sending a few kilobytes. Because of the buffering in the pipe, the sender may be substantially ahead of the geomview display. If geomview exits, the sending program receives a write-on-broken-pipe (SIGPIPE) signal, which will kill it unless measures are taken to catch or ignore that signal. Only one copy of geomview can read from a given pipe at a time. If a second copy attempts to read from it, both will probably fail. It's fine to have multiple copies of geomview reading from different pipes. Note that togeomview will invoke geomview if no extant copy is listening to the relevant pipe; it can't connect to an existing copy of geomview started by other means. SEE ALSO
geomview(1), oogl(5) Geometry Center 21 May 1993 TOGEOMVIEW(1gv)
Check Out this Related Man Page
animate(1gv) Geomview Module animate(1gv) NAME
animate - animate a sequence of geomview files SYNOPSIS
animate [-p] [-b] [-s speed] [-o] [-S script] [-hide] [-f file1 file2 ...] DESCRIPTION
Animate is an interactive animation tool specifically designed to be used with Geomview. It provides several simple animation controls such as looping, bouncing, and single frame stepping, as well as adjustable speed playing. The program works by telling geomview to read in a sequence of geomview files and then telling geomview to display each frame of the sequence in order. There are two methods that Animate provides for specifying which frames one wants to have in the sequence being viewed. The first method is to enter the name of every frame into the text input box and press return or click on load. The name of each frame must correspond with the name of a geomview file existing in the file system. EXAMPLES pict1 pict2 pict3 pict4 pict* pic?? The second method of loading frames is to first create an animation script file outside of animate and then load the script in by typing its name in the input box and clicking on the script button. The advantage of this method is that you can more easily specify the exact order in which you want the frames to be shown. The format of the script file is a list of frame names each followed by a newline. Comments prepended by a # sign are allowed. EXAMPLE SCRIPT FILE # list of frames for # my rotating cube movie cube.02 cube.04 cube.03 # get rid of this frame later cube.01 . . . cube.90 Loading frames into memory may take a little time, especially if each frame is a particularly large file. Be sure the machine you're using has sufficient memory to load all the frames you desire. Once all frames have been loaded, an 'animate' object will appear in the geomview object browser. It is now possible to begin animating. Scrolling through frames can be accomplished in several different ways. The first, and most obvious way is by 'playing' the frames. Click- ing on the Play button causes animate to begin playing through the frames in order, starting with the first frame or whichever frame has been selected. The corresponding name of each frame being shown is shown in the pink text-entry box. Click on Stop to cease playing. Animation speed depends on the size and complexity of the object in each frame. Thus different sequences can have considerably different top playing speeds. Use the Speed slider to set an upper limit to the animation rate. You can also play slowly through the frames can also by clicking repeatedly on either step button. Press the Bounce button to enter bounce mode. While in bounce mode, direction of play reverses whenever the first or last frame is reached. Clicking on either Step button determines the playing direction. Clicking on Once puts animate in 'once' mode. While in this mode, upon reaching the first or last frame (depending on which direction you are going) of a specified sequence, animate will stop playing. Normal playing can be resumed by clicking on Once again to exit this mode. The Info button will bring up a short menu containing helpful hints for program usage. Clicking on the exit button will cause the program to exit. OPTIONS
-p Start playing through the frames right away upon startup. -b Go into bounce mode upon startup. -s speed Set the speed of play upon startup. The value of speed may be an integer between 0 and 100 which roughly signifies the percentage of top playing speed. -o Set animation to play through only once upon startup. -S script Specify name of script containing filenames for objects to be read in upon startup. Takes precedence over -f option if present. -hide Makes animate invisible upon startup. *Warning* all animate commands must be specified on the command line when this option is used since there is no way to access the main window. -f file1 file2 ... Specify names of files containing objects to be read in upon startup. BUGS
When loading sequences one after another, geomview will often not load a sequence on the first try. This can often be remedied by telling animate to load the sequence yet again. SEE ALSO
geomview(1) oogl(5) AUTHOR
Daeron Meyer The Geometry Center December 12, 1994 animate(1gv)