Linux Desktop Hacks

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Chapter 4, Related to X

#26 Never Miss Another Reminder

HACK

Green is typical of television on-screen displays, so see if it looks good for

XOSD:

$ echo "Hello there, this is osd_cat speaking." |

osd_cat_-c green \

–f "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-*-240-*-*-p-*-*-*"

If you want to get fancy, present the text with a bit of a shadow. Of course,

if the message displays on a dark background, you probably won’t see the

shadow. Add the

–s 2 switch to create a 2-pixel shadow for the message:

$ echo "Hello there, this is osd_cat speaking." |

osd_cat -c green –s 2 \

–f "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-*-240-*-*-p-*-*-*"

Now position the text in the middle of the screen with the -p middle switch

(you can choose

top or bottom, if you prefer). You might see the message

appear at the top of the screen for a moment, after which it shifts to the mid-

dle of the screen. This is an occasional idiosyncrasy of osd_cat that will

probably be fixed as it matures. Finally, you can make the message display

on the screen for longer than the default 5 seconds. Add the

-d 60 switch to

tell osd_cat to leave the message on the screen for 60 seconds:

$ echo "Hello there, this is osd_cat speaking." |

osd_cat -c green –s 2 –p middle –d 60

–f "-*-helvetica-*-*-*-*-34-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"

A number of other switches are also available, such as a switch to indent the

text. Browse the manpage for osd_cat for a list of the available customiza- ...