apollonian(6x)

💖 apollonian(6x) — or, the circle-packing one 💖

okay bestie, so this is one of the XScreenSaver manual pages, and honestly? it's giving geometry class but make it aesthetic. the program is called apollonian, it lives in section 6x of the manual, and it's about to make you obsessed with circles. 🌀✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

apollonian — Descartes Circle Theorem, bestie. that's the whole vibe. no cap.

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

apollonian [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--no-label] [--no-altgeom] [--cycles
number] [--ncolors number] [--delay number] [--fps]

like, that's the whole invocation. run it, pass it flags, live your truth. 💅

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🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

so what it does: it takes one big circle and literally packs it full of smaller circles. tiny ones. tinier ones. it's circle inception. 🔥 and the whole time it's demonstrating the Descartes Circle Theorem — which is the iconic math thing where four mutually tangent circles have this relationship between their curvatures. the screen just keeps doing that, over and over, and it's lowkey mesmerizing. 😭💖

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

here's every single flag, no skips, no cuts, we don't gatekeep here:

• --visual visual — picks which visual you wanna use. legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number of a specific visual (and yes, decimal or hex both work, she's flexible 💅).
• --window — draws on a freshly-created window. this is the default, so if you do nothing, this is what you get. main character behaviour. 👑
• --root — draws on the root window instead. cozy.
• --window-id number — draws on the exact window you point at. you pick, she slays. 🎯
• --label | --no-label — draws labels, or doesn't. it's a boolean, so it's literally just on/off energy. 🏷️
• --altgeom | --no-altgeom — includes alternate geometries, or doesn't. also boolean. also on/off. 🌸
• --cycles number — the depth. valid range is 1 - 20. default: 20. like, go deep or go home. 🕳️✨
• --ncolors number — number of colors. default: 64. sixty-four little hues, living their best lives. 🌈
• --delay number — per-frame delay, measured in microseconds. default: 1000000, which is 1.00 seconds. yes a whole second per frame, she takes her time and we respect it. ⏳
• --fps — shows you the current frame rate and CPU load. the little stats girlies will love this one. 📊💀

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🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

the environment variables it peeks at, fr fr:

• DISPLAY — used to get the default host and display number. 🖥️
• XENVIRONMENT — used to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. very "i have a settings file for that" of it. 📄
• XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root. 🪟

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🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

go read these too, iykyk:

• X(1)
• xscreensaver(1)

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

Copyright © 2002 by Allan R. Wilks and David Bagley.

and here's the license, which we keep exactly as-is because legal text is not a vibe you mess with 🙈:

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.

(it's the "as is" part, bestie — no warranty, express or implied, so don't come for them if your circles get weird 💀)

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Allan R. Wilks and David Bagley. absolute legends, both of them. 🫶

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so that's the whole page!! this one shipped as part of X Version 11, version 6.09, dated 07-Jun-2024 — that's the source and date, folded in right here at the end like a little signed note. go forth and pack some circles. 🍓💖✨