SPORE

Section: Misc. Reference Manual Pages (6X)
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

spore - calculate and display a radiating aggregate of particles

SYNOPSIS

spore [-duFR] [-w width] [-h height] [-o filename] [-m index] [-c colorwheel] [-n count][-N nballs][-k duration]

DESCRIPTION

spore generates and graphically displays a radiating aggregate of particles. It was originally intended as a simulation of the aggregation of dust particles in the atmosphere or marine snow but looks more like a spore print.

OPTIONS

-R: Indicates the display will be in the root window. In this mode, the default color map will be used and no spinning of the color wheel is possible.
-c n: Selects one of many different color wheels to use. The default color wheel is a rainbow palette.
-d: Indicates demo mode. In this mode, the aggregate will be calculated, displayed, spun, then the program will exit.
-w n: Specifies the width of the window. Default is 512.
-h n: Specifies the height of the window. Default is 512.
-k duration: Specifies how many points to compute before changing colors.
-m n: Specifies the minimum color index to be used for the upper end of the color wheel
-n numpics: Specifies how many aggregates to compute before exiting. During display (see NOTES below), pressing 'n' or 'N' will skip to the next map.
-N nballs: Specifies how many aggregates to simultaneously compute and display
-o filename: Specifies the output filename to be used. If the -o option is given, this file will automatically be written out at the completion of the drawing. If it is not specified, a default filename of spore.ppm is used and only written if the 'f' or 'F' keys are pressed during a run. The format of the output file is PPM. The parameters used to calculate the picture are included as comments at the beginning of the output file.
-s: Indicates to spin the color wheel immediately upon completion of display.
-u: Produces a usage message.

NOTES

During display, use of the keys +-><0123456789CfFnNrswWX?hqQ indicates:

           (+) Increment minimum color index.
           (+) Decrement minimum color index.
           (C) Create another aggregate, preserving the existing ones.
           (n or N) Skip to the next aggregate.
           (s) Spin the color wheel in the positive direction.
           (r) Spin the color wheel in the negative direction.
           (W or w) Increment or decrement the color map index.
           (X) Erase the existing aggregates and restart the computation and display
           (Q or q) quit

BUGS

Switching multi-screens (on an SCO 3.2v4 system) while displaying an aggregate on the root window (in a "virtual" root window) seems to make it impossible to switch screens and kills the server.

AUTHOR

        Ronald Joe Record
     The Santa Cruz Operation 
          P.O. Box 1900
       Santa Cruz, CA 95061
            rr@sco.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The algorithm, which uses a modified random walk, was derived from lectures given by Dietmar Saupe at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Assistance with colormaps and spinning color wheels and X was gleaned from Hiram Clawson and Stacey Campbell.

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 20:43:53 GMT, June 11, 2022