clock24

Clock24 is the 24-hour analog clock for those programmers who have to get their work done before midnight. The short hand travels around in a day, whereas those on conventional analog clocks do so in half a day. The biggest reasons why I wrote this are that I often write code in the basement to find myself not sure whether it's nighttime or daytime, and that I prefer analog clocks to digital clocks.

This program uses OpenGL to draw an analog clock, and GLUT to do UI stuff. It works well with X11 utilities like Devil's Pie.

Screenshots

It's 16:52. Still have some time before the deadline.

Features

Compatibility mode(-c)

Emulates conventional 12-hour analog clock.

Reverse mode(-r)

With this option, midnight(0:00) goes to the bottom.

GMT mode(-g)

Shows GMT instead of local time.

Online help(-h)

Though it lacks man page.

Alarm

On the time that the alarm is set, the color of backpanel changes to red. It often means that you missed a deadline.

All these options can also be turned on/off using a pop-up menu.

How to compile

I checked this program to compile and run on Ubuntu 8.04(AMD64) and MacOS X 10.5.4(ppc).

• On GNU/Linux, make sure you have GLUT and its development files installed, and type `make' to get the executable `clock24'. It can be put anywhere you like, such as /usr/bin.
• On Apple MacOS X, type `make -f Makefile.macosx' to use the Makefile that I wrote for MacOS X users. Put `clock24' anywhere you like.
• On *BSD, most users tend to know what they are doing. Please compile clock24.c, whose object links against GLUT and OpenGL. I hear OpenBSD is getting hardware rendering support, with which this application runs more smoothly on the platform.

Download

This is a public domain software. clock24-1.01.tar.bz2(2008/08/06)

Changes from 1.0(2008/08/04)

• updated Makefile(Thanks to Ales Smrcka and Pinky)

External Link

1. Project page at freshmeat.net

Footnote

While writing this program, I noticed that Intel's GMA X3100 on their Santa Rosa platform(with all BIOS updates) does very poor OpenGL compared to years-old ATI Mobility RADEON 9700. First, GL_LINE_SMOOTH is painfully ugly even with GL_NICEST. Second, with antialiasing turned on, glLineWidth(1.0f) and glRotatef, lines parallel to one of window edges disappear without any trace. Even if their cards are not targeted at OpenGL-savvy users, isn't this a bit too rough? Anyway, lucky is that it's not me that directly paid for this machine, which the university lends me. Oh, I hear someone knocking on my door...

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