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Member "xearth-1.1/README" (7 Nov 1999, 5069 Bytes) of package /linux/misc/old/xearth-1.1.tar.gz:

    1 README file for xearth, version 1.1
    2 Kirk Lauritz Johnson <tuna@indra.com>
    3 6 November 1999
    4 
    5 
    6 WHAT IS IT?
    7 
    8     Xearth sets the X root window to an image of the Earth, as seen
    9     from your favorite vantage point in space, correctly shaded for
   10     the current position of the Sun. By default, xearth updates the
   11     displayed image every five minutes; the time between updates can
   12     be changed using either X resources or a command line
   13     option. Xearth can also be configured to render into a top-level X
   14     window or directly into PPM and GIF files; see the man page for
   15     details.
   16 
   17     See the HISTORY file for a list of changes since earlier versions
   18     of xearth.
   19 
   20 
   21 WHERE TO GET IT?
   22 
   23     The latest-and-greatest version of xearth should always be
   24     available via a link from the xearth WWW home page (URL
   25     http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~tuna/xearth/index.html), or, for the
   26     web-deprived, via anonymous ftp from cag.lcs.mit.edu in /pub/tuna.
   27 
   28 
   29 NOTES
   30 
   31     If you are trying to build xearth under SunOS 4.x using /bin/cc,
   32     make sure to read the section of the INSTALL file entitled
   33     "BUILDING UNDER SUNOS 4.x" regarding a compiler bug.
   34 
   35     The map information used in xearth was derived from the "CIA World
   36     Data Bank II map database," as taken from some "cbd" files that
   37     were apparently originally generated by Brian Reid at DEC WRL.
   38 
   39     Running in the background on 350 MHz Pentium II, xearth requires
   40     less than one CPU second each time it redraws an image in the root
   41     window. With the default time-between-redraws of 300 seconds, I
   42     simply don't notice the extra CPU load. Your mileage may vary, of
   43     course, especially on slower machines.
   44 
   45     The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of
   46     CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of
   47     CompuServe Incorporated.
   48 
   49     Thanks to Robert Berger for allowing me to include his nifty Gamma
   50     Measurement Image and associated text in the xearth source
   51     distribution.
   52 
   53     Thanks to Jamie Zawinski for suggesting that I look at his
   54     xscreensaver package for a good example of how to use the resource
   55     and command line option parts of Xt; his code saved me piles of
   56     lossage.
   57 
   58     Thanks to Chris Metcalf for the -bigstars stuff, a pile of general
   59     source code cleaning, and spell checking everything carefully.
   60 
   61     Thanks to Chris Hayward, Chris Metcalf, Sherman Mui, Dan Rich, and
   62     Leonard Zubkoff for giving the pre-release of version 1.0 a test
   63     drive.
   64 
   65     Kudos to Jef Poskanzer for his excellent PBMPLUS toolkit.
   66 
   67     Finally, thanks to everybody that sent encouragement, suggestions,
   68     and patches. Apologies to the many people whose good ideas didn't
   69     make it into this release.
   70 
   71 
   72 IDEAS FOR FUTURE WORK
   73 
   74     Better error recovery (better than "assert()", anyway).
   75 
   76     Add options/resources that specify colors other than the default
   77     green, blue, red, white, and black.
   78 
   79     Code for tracking real-life orbits ("-pos hubble").
   80 
   81     Support for supersampling/antialiasing.
   82 
   83 
   84 AUTHOR
   85 
   86     Kirk Johnson <tuna@indra.com>
   87 
   88     Patches, bug reports, and suggestions are welcome, although I
   89     can't guarantee that I'll get around to doing anything about them
   90     in a timely fashion.
   91 
   92 
   93 LEGAL STUFF
   94 
   95     Copyright (C) 1989, 1990, 1993-1995, 1999 Kirk Lauritz Johnson
   96 
   97     Parts of the source code (as marked) are:
   98       Copyright (C) 1989, 1990, 1991 by Jim Frost
   99       Copyright (C) 1992 by Jamie Zawinski <jwz@lucid.com>
  100 
  101     Permission to use, copy, modify and freely distribute xearth for
  102     non-commercial and not-for-profit purposes is hereby granted
  103     without fee, provided that both the above copyright notice and
  104     this permission notice appear in all copies and in supporting
  105     documentation.
  106 
  107     Unisys Corporation holds worldwide patent rights on the Lempel Zev
  108     Welch (LZW) compression technique employed in the CompuServe GIF
  109     image file format as well as in other formats. Unisys has made it
  110     clear, however, that it does not require licensing or fees to be
  111     paid for freely distributed, non-commercial applications (such as
  112     xearth) that employ LZW/GIF technology. Those wishing further
  113     information about licensing the LZW patent should contact Unisys
  114     directly at (lzw_info@unisys.com) or by writing to
  115 
  116       Unisys Corporation
  117       Welch Licensing Department
  118       M/S-C1SW19
  119       P.O. Box 500
  120       Blue Bell, PA 19424
  121 
  122     The author makes no representations about the suitability of this
  123     software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express
  124     or implied warranty.
  125 
  126     THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE,
  127     INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS,
  128     IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT
  129     OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM
  130     LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
  131     NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN
  132     CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.