What is it?

PixiClock is tiny desktop clock widget for true geeks.

It use original pixi-icons instead digits and show ordinary digits only as hint, when mouse comes over.

You can get more information about pixi-culture, and view more pixi "urods".

Features

• Excentric and ascetic design
• Build-in alarm clock
• Snap-to-border support
• Hints
• Flexible control by external applications
• Skins
• Easy installation and configuration

Installation

Requirements

You need:

• Python
• Python Tk extension

You can check it by command:

$ python -c 'import Tkinter; print "OK"'

If you get "OK" message -- be sure of this.

If you get message like this:

ImportError: No module named Tkinter

you need to install python-tk extension.

Standard installation way

You can use native Python installation procedure:

$ wget http://pixiclock.googlecode.com/files/pixiclock-0.2.0.tar.gz
$ tar xzf pixiclock-0.2.0.tar.gz
$ cd pixiclock-0.2.0
$ python setup.py build
$ sudo python setup.py install

You can install PixiClock with prefix:

$ sudo python setup.py install --root /opt

Hackers way

True hackers can install PixiClock manualy.

Just get and unpack sources, open file pixiclock in your favorite editor, edit the first line (it begins with "#"), and other lines if you need. Now copy file wherever you want in your system. You can install pixiclock-client the same way.

Usage

Quickstart

Just start pixiclock:

$ pixiclock

Start as alarm clock (at 9:00 and 17:00):

$ pixiclock -a 9:00 -a 17:00

Load external skins (see root-menu/Skins):

$ pixiclock -f skins/tiny.ini

Start as diemon:

$ pixiclock -d

Options

-v
    print version
-h
    print help message
-p PORT
    run pixiclock in network mode on PORT; try
    $ pixiclock-clietn -p PORT "TEST"
-n
    same as -p 7070
-a HH:MM
    set up alarm; can be used many times
-a HH:MM@/path/command
    set up alarm and command to execute on it
    (there is no way to pass arguments to command yet)-f FILE
    load skin from configuration file;
    can be used many times to load diferent
    skins in conjunction
-c COMMAND
    piped watchdog command
-w
    do not ignore window manager
-d
    daemonize

IPC modes

Pixiclock can notify you about any events. You can control it due to pipes or network.

Piped watchdog scope

You can write a program that periodically produces data to standard output. It may look like this:

#!/bin/sh
# file /home/xxx/example.sh
LANG=C
while : # infinite loop
do
  # we emit control words and text to display (date)
  echo 'BG=#ff0000 FG=#ffff00 GEOMETRY=+30+30 DELAY=1000'
  date
  # and sleep 10 seconds
  sleep 10
done

Now you can run the pixiclock and tell it to use this data provider.

pixiclock -c /home/xxx/example.sh

You can see date message every 10 seconds.

Network scope

You can communicate with pixiclock via a network connection.

Run the pixiclock in network mode:

$ pixiclock -n -d

Use pixiclock-client to send messages to pixiclock:

$ pixiclock-client 'OK!'
$ pixiclock-client 'BG=#770000;FG=#ffffff;RED OK!'
$ date | pixiclock-client

Under the agreement, the pixiclock and pixiclock-client uses port 7070. You can specify an alternate port. Use the option -p N.

Control words

As you can see above, message may contain control words. Control words are separate by space chars or ';' sign. You can specify colors, places, and time delays. Examples:

BG=#ff0000 -- red backgound
FG=#00ff00 -- green foreground
DEALY=1000 -- delay one second
GEOMETRY=+10-10 -- place near left-bottom corner of screen

Demos

You can find more eamples in demos/.

Authors

Code writen by Michurin Alexey <a.michurin@gmail.com>.

The original concept and graphic design belongs to Mihail Razuvaev (goglus) <goglus@gmail.com>.

Enjoy!