*========================================================================
*
* Name - README
*
* Version: 1.16
*
* ccsid: @(#)README 1.16 - 08/16/95 08:16:28
* from: ccs/s.README
* date: 11/07/95 11:31:39
*
* Copyright (C) 1990-92 Bruce Schuchardt
* See either the man page or the file cpyright.h for full copyright
* information.
*
* Description: README for xgrabsc
*
* Notes for this specific release are in README.xx_yy
*
*========================================================================
(Xgrabsc version 2.41)
INTRO TO xgrabsc
When I first wrote xgrabsc, there were a number of programs available
for getting X-Window screen dumps (e.g., xwd and xwps), but they
were all restricted to dumping a single window in a single format.
I wrote xgrabsc in an effort to get around these restrictions.
The main contribution of this program is its use of root-window
rubberbanding to allow capture of arbitrary portions of the screen,
and its multiple output formats (x-bitmap, portable-bitmap, x-pixmap, xwd,
puzzle, "simple", and several Postscript formats).
The Postscript dumps will use run-length encoding if it results in
any savings in size. A typical xterm window dump on a mono system
runs around 40K bytes (20K for binary output). An xwd dump on the
same screen will be around 650K bytes. While the xpr program has a
"compress" option, it only compresses white samples. Reducing the
size of the output increases the cost of computing the dump and the
final printing of the dump, but it reduces the cost of storage and
the time to transfer the dump to your printer. The latter is
especially important for large screen dumps.
The xgrabsc program is not interactive. You specify all processing
options on the command line with obscure option characters. These
are all detailed in the man page. An interactive interface to xgrabsc,
named xgrab, is also included in this release. xgrab allows you to
do most of the setup with a mouse, and then uses the xgrabsc program
to actually do the processing. To use xgrab you must have the xgrabsc
program in your execution path.
OPTIONS FOR BUILDING xgrabsc
The file config.h contains all the configuration options for xgrabsc.
Please take a moment to look through that file before building xgrabsc.
You also have the choice of building either the Athena or Motif version of
the xgrab form. The default is to build the Athena version since many people
don't have Motif yet. If you have some version of OSF's Motif include and
library files and you want to build the Motif version of the xgrab form,
you will have to edit the Imakefile or simple.mak before building.
For VMS there are MMS files for building xgrabsc that were contributed by
a user. There are no files for building the windowed xgrab interface as
yet. If you come up with some, please send them to me.
BUILDING xgrabsc
Xgrabsc should build easily enough. If you don't have the imake
program, use simple.mak (i.e., make -f simple.mak). There are targets
for xgrabsc, xgrab, install, install.man, and clean.
If you use simple.mak you will have to edit the file to put in the installed
locations of various files.
E.g.,
xmkmf
make
make install
make install.man
The install target will put xgrabsc in /usr/bin/X11 and the man page in
/usr/man/man1, unless you are using imake and your configuration files
specify alternative directories. If you are using simple.mak and don't
like these locations, change the makefile before installing.
Please send comments, bugs, and enhancements to bruce@slc.com. Please
read the Bugs file before sending bug reports.
Manifest
---------------------------------
README this file
README.xx_yy files describing incremental changes to xgrabsc
Acks acknowledgements for code gleaned from other
systems, and people who have been very helpful
in adding features and removing bugs from xgrabsc
Bugs known bugs - read this before sending bug reports
Imakefile Input for "imake" program
simple.mak Simpler input for standard "make"
hp.mak A version of simple.mak for HPUX 9.0, which comes with
Motif1.2
checkvm.h Memory-check Postscript operator
config.h Configuration options
cpyright.h Copyright notice for this software (READ IT)
cmdopts.h Command line options for xgrabsc
patchlevel.h Current patch level
virtual.h Support for virtual window managers
xgrabxm.c Source for Motif 1.2 window interface to xgrabsc
xgrabxaw.c Source for the Athena window interface to xgrabsc
xgrabsc.c Program source for the screen grabber
*.hc function include files for xgrabsc.c
XWDfile.h xwd structure definition needed on some platforms
ad2c.sed sed script to convert XGrab.ad to fallback resources
for xgrab (see Ack file - this isn't mine)
xgrabsc.man Man page for xgrabsc
xgrab.man Man page for xgrab
XGrabxm.res Resources for the Motif xgrab program
XGrabxaw.res Resources for the Athena xgrab program
VMS.mms VMS build file for xgrabsc
vmssc.opt options file for VMS build
BUGS:
Common problems and known bugs are described in the Bugs file.
TO DO:
Support for 24-bit displays. If someone wants to give this a shot, please
let me know.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce Schuchardt bruce@SLC.COM
Servio Corp.
Beaverton, OR