boing(6)

📦
version 6.15 · 2 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

💖 boing(6) — the XScreenSaver manual, but make it iconic 💖

okay bestie, so this is a page from the XScreenSaver manual, and it's about a bouncing ball. yes, that bouncing ball. sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you everything 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

boing — draws a bouncing ball like the ancient Amiga demo. that's it. that's the whole job. and it ate 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

boing [--display host:display.screen] [--window] [--root] [--window-id
number][--install] [--visual visual] [--delay usecs] [--smooth]
[--lighting] [--scanlines] [--speed] [--no-spin] [--angle degrees]
[--size ratio] [--parallels n] [--meridians n] [--wireframe] [--fps]

look at all those flags, she's got range 👑

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so the boing program draws a bouncing checkered ball on a grid. that's the vibe. it's simple, it's pure, it's main character energy from 1984.

this is a clone of the first graphics demo for the Amiga 1000, which was written by Dale Luck and RJ Mical during a break at the 1984 Consumer Electronics Show (or so the legend goes 👀). the boing ball was briefly the official logo of Amiga Inc., until they were bought by Commodore later that year. history! we love her! 😭

with no arguments, this program looks a lot like the original Amiga demo. with -smooth -lighting, it looks... less old. ngl that's the glow-up right there ✨

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

boing accepts the following options, and yes we're doing all of them:

  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you do nothing, you already did this 🫶
  • --root — draw on the root window. going full wallpaper mode.
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window. you pick the window, she slays in it.
  • --install — install a private colormap for the window. fancy.
  • --visual visual — specify which visual to use. legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. yes, decimal OR hex, she's flexible like that 💅
  • --delay usecs — the delay between frames of the animation, in microseconds: default 15000.
  • --smooth — draw a smooth sphere instead of a faceted polyhedron. bye polygons, hello softness 🌸
  • --lighting — do shaded lighting instead of flat colors. it's giving dimension.
  • --scanlines — if the window is large enough, draw horizontal lines to simulate the scanlines on a low resolution monitor. retro CRT realness, but only if the window is large enough — she's got conditions.
  • --speed ratio — change the animation speed; 0.5 to go half as fast, 2.0 to go twice as fast. choose your chaos.
  • --no-spin — don't rotate the ball. she just bounces. no spin, no drama.
  • --angle degrees — the jaunty angle at which the ball sits. default 15 degrees. jaunty is literally the technical term, we don't make the rules.
  • --size ratio — how big the ball is; default 0.5 meaning about half the size of the window.
  • --parallels n and --meridians n — the pattern of rectangles on the ball. default 8x16.
  • --wireframe — look crummy. that's the whole description, she's honest and we respect it 💀
  • --fps — display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. stats girlies rise 👑

💜 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.
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root.

environment variables said "we're also part of the lore" and honestly? correct.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

bsod(6), pong(6), xscreensaver(1), X(1)

the friend group 🫶 go read about the blue screen of death next, it's a whole mood.

Copyright © 2005 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

fr fr read that part — it's "as is", no warranty, no promises, she's not your lawyer or your sysadmin 💀

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 19-Feb-2005.

and that's the page bestie, no notes, 10/10, would boing again 💖

sign-off time: this little icon came to you from X Version 11, version 6.15 (30-Mar-2026), and yeah, boing(6) is still out here bouncing. periodt. 🎀

📦 where this page comes from