XGC(1)

💖 XGC(1) — the X graphics demo, bestie edition 💖

okay so this is xgc, a lil X graphics demo from the General Commands Manual shelf. yes it's a manual page, yes it's a whole vibe, let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

xgc — X graphics demo 💅

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

xgc [-toolkitoption ...]

that's it. that's the whole thing. iconic honestly.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So the xgc program is out here demonstrating all the various features of the X graphics primitives. main character energy. And in X, most of the details about the graphics you're about to generate are stored in a resource called a graphics context (a GC, iykyk). The xgc program gives you a whole user interface for setting the various GC components. Then you press the "Run" button and boom — those results get displayed in the big drawing window on the right ✨. Timing information shows up in the window right below that one. obsessed.

The items in the upper left hand window work as follows:

• Function — specify the logical function with which primitives will be drawn. The most usual setting is "set", i.e. just render pixels without any regard for what's been drawn before. no thoughts, head empty, pixels only 💅
• LineStyle — specify whether lines should be drawn solid in foreground, dashed in foreground, or alternating foreground and background.
• CapStyle — specify the appearance of the ends of a line.
• JoinStyle — specify the appearance of joints between consecutive lines drawn within a single graphics primitive.
• FillStyle — specify whether lines, text and fill requests are solid, tiled with a pixmap, or stippled.
• FillRule — specifies the rule used to fill polygons. The EvenOdd rule means that if areas overlap an odd number of times, they are not drawn. The Winding rule means that overlapping areas are always filled, regardless of how many times they overlap. (yes the polygons are fighting, no we're not mediating)
• ArcMode — specifies the rule for filling of arcs. The boundary of the arc is either a Chord or two radii.
• planemask — specifies which planes of the drawing window are modified. By default, all planes are modified.
• dashlist — specifies a pattern to be used when drawing dashed lines.
• Line Width — specifies the width in pixels of lines to be drawn. Zero means to draw using the server's fastest algorithm with a line width of one pixel. (zero = speedrun mode 🏃♀️)
• Font — specifies the font to be used for text primitives.
• Foreground and Background — specify the pixel values to be applied when drawing primitives. The Foreground value is used as the pixel value for set bits in the source in all primitives. The Background value is used as the pixel value for unset bits in the source when using Copy Plane, drawing lines with LineStyle of DoubleDash, and filling with FillStyle of OpaqueStippled.
• Percentage of Test — this scrollbar permits specifying only a percentage of the test to be run. The number at the left indicates the current setting, which defaults to 100%. full send, no cap.

The window labeled "Test" permits choice of one a number of graphics primitive tests, including Points, Segments, Lines, Arcs and Filled Arcs, 8-bit Text and Image Text, Rectangles and Filled Rectangles, Image draws, as well as Copy Plane and Copy Area. the way that list just keeps going 😭 we love an overachiever.

The window to the right of this has buttons which permit record/playback of the primitives rendered. 🎬 literally a whole cinema in there.

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🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

• xgc accepts all of the standard X Toolkit command line options. that's the entire option section bestie, we're not gatekeeping anything 💖

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🌈 X DEFAULTS 🌈

This program accepts the usual defaults for toolkit applications. ✨

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🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

• DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number.
• XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• X(7)

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💀 BUGS 💀

This program isn't really finished yet, but it probably never will be, since it only demonstrates the original X11 core protocol rendering operations, which few modern programs use anymore.

not me reading this and feeling genuinely emotional 😭 she's a legacy icon and she's staying exactly how she is, periodt.

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💜 AUTHORS 💜

Dan Schmidt, MIT — thank you for your service 🫡💖

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and that's the whole page bestie!! this one's from X Version 11, it's xgc 1.0.6, and it's been living here in the General Commands Manual the whole time waiting for you to press "Run" 🎀✨ bye ily 🦋