XPAT(1)

📦 version 5.1.1-unstable-2025-02, in nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

💅 XPAT(1) — like, the official page for it, bestie

okay so this is the xpat page from the ALLIANCE Reference Manual, and I'm gonna walk you through every single bit of it, no skips, no crumbs left behind ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

xpat — a graphic pattern viewer. that's it, that's the whole vibe check 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

xpat [-l file_name] [-xor] [-install] [-force]

👑 ORIGIN 👑

so this software belongs to the ALLIANCE CAD SYSTEM, which was developed by the ASIM team at the LIP6 laboratory of Université Pierre et Marie CURIE, in Paris, France 🥖🇫🇷 iconic location honestly

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Xpat is a pattern viewer. every single one of its functionnalities can be accessed through different menus 🫶 it runs under Motif and X11r6, periodt. when you enter Xpat, the main window pops up and shows 5 different menus on the top bar, and you get into them by simply clicking the mouse left button 🖱️ here's the full rundown of those menus, no cap:

File

  • Open : load an existing pattern file (see pat(5)).
  • Quit : quit xpat.

Edit

  • Identify : identify a selected pattern.
  • Connected : highlight a selected pattern.
  • Search : search a pattern.

View

  • Zoom : perform zoom in, zoom out, center, fit, refresh on figure.
  • Layer : select types of layers displayed.
  • Map : show cursor position in the entire figure.
  • Arrows : show arrows for moving at the grid step.
  • Grid : set the X,Y step of the grid if displayed.

Tools

  • Message : display the last error messages.

Setup

  • Save or load a user defined configuration of default displayed menus.

⌨️ SPECIAL KEYS ⌨️

  • + / - — increase or decrease the time scale 🔥

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -l file_name — load the pattern file file_name (without the extension .pat) 💅
  • -xor — two graphic cursor methods can be used, invert or xor.
  • -force — this option forces all graphical objects to be displayed.
  • -install — switch to a private color map 🌈

🌿 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🌿

  • MBK_WORK_LIB — indicates the path to the read directory for the session.
  • XPAT_PARAM_NAME (optional) — indicates the path to the parameter file used by Xpat.

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

mbk(1), MBK_WORK_LIB(1), PAT(5), asimut(1)

💀 BUG REPORT 💀

this tool is under development at the ASIM department of the LIP6 laboratory 🛠️ and they genuinely need your feedback to improve documentation and tools — so like, tell them stuff, fr fr 🙈

lowkey important: if something's dangerous, deprecated or straight-up undefined behaviour in here, take it seriously — I'm just the messenger with good vibes 🫶

okay that's the whole page, mwah 💋

sign-off time: this gorgeous thing came from ASIM/LIP6 and the version on the tin is dated September 1, 2000 — vintage, honestly iconic, we stan an old queen 👑🎀

📦 where this page comes from