NAME TkWeather, by Jim Turner (c) 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 SYNOPSIS tkweather.pl [--options=values] [zip-code] [site] tkweather.pl --help (display usage message) DESCRIPTION This program displays a nice square iconic button showing the current weather condition. Clicking the button shows the current basic weather condition values, such as temperature, humidity, and wind. Clicking again shows additional information, namely the barometric pressure, UV, visiblility, and "heat index" or "wind chill" or "misery index". Holding the [Shift] key while clicking displays a webpage showing the detailed weather info. Holding the [Ctrl] key while clicking changes to the next weather site. Holding the [Ctrl] key while right-clicking changes to the previous weather site. Double-clicking or holding the [Alt] key while clicking refreshes the data. Holding the [Shift] and [Ctrl] keys simultainously while clicking exits the program. For anyone not from Houston, Texas, the old "misery index" is the temperature plus dewpoint. Anything over 150 is considered "miserable"! I use this for planning workouts. The default is to use the more modern "heat index". Specify "index=misery" for the old Houston "misery index". "wind chill" is used if the temperature is below 70 and wind is >= 10mph regardless. "site", is currently 0: "weather.com" (weather.com) or 1: "wunderground" (www.wunderground.com), 2: NOAA, or 3: Weatherbug. If it fails on the selected one, it tries the next site. The default is 0 (weather.com). CONFIGURATION How to set up (Windows or Linux/Unix): 1) This program fetches the current conditions every 15 minutes (900 seconds) from www.weather.com, www.wunderground.com, www.noaa.gov, or weatherbug. Windows users: If installing on Windows, simply run the self-extracting exe, which will install everything automatically and only do step 4 below. If the program crashes, try running the tkweather_nogui.exe version and examine the output. For Linux / source users: 2) Create a "tkweather" directory in your home directory 3) You will also need to specify your zipcode either as the command-line argument or add a "zipcode=yourzip" line in $HOME/tkweather/tkweather.cfg Otherwise you get the weather at the author's zipcode! 4) The optional file: $HOME/tkweather/tkweather.cfg takes the format (defaults shown below): Any line starting with "#" is ignored as a comment. geometry=+100+100 zipcode=76087 #BROWSER TO BE INVOKED IF USER PRESSES SHIFT-CLICK ON BUTTON. browser=mozilla #URL USED FOR SCRAPING WEATHER DATA. weatherurl=http://www.w3.weather.com/weather/local/?lswe=&lwsa=WeatherLocalUndeclared #COMMAND URL TO BE INVOKED IF USER PRESSES SHIFT-CLICK ON BUTTON. #UP TO 3 URLS MAY BE ENTERED FOR EACH OF THE 3 STATIONS SEPARATED BY "|". weathercmd=http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query= & #MILLISECONDS TO WAIT BETWEEN QUERIES TO THE WEATHER URL. checkmsec=900000 #BUTTON RELIEF (CHOICES: flat, groove, raised, ridge, sunken) relief=ridge #INDEX: "misery": USE OLD "MISERY INDEX" (HEAT+DEWPOINT), #OTHERWISE ("heat") USE MODERN "HEAT INDEX" AS REPORTED. #NOTE: WIND CHILL IS REPORTED IF TEMP. < 70 AND WIND >= 10 MPH #REGARDLESS OF THIS SETTING! index=heat #OVERRIDEDIRECT ARGUMENT 0=MANAGED BY WINDOWMANAGER (DECORATE) #1=BYPASS WINDOWMANAGER (NO DECORATION). USE 0 IF DOCKING IN #WINDOWMAKER OR AFTERSTEP. windowmgr=0 #STARTUP ICON IMAGE (MUST BE IN $ENV{HOME}/tkweather/) startimage=tkweather.gif #NORMAL TEXT FOREGROUND COLOR normalcolor=green #WARNING COLOR warningcolor=yellow #ALERT COLOR alertcolor=red #NORMAL BACKGROUND COLOR bgcolor=black #SHOW WARNING/ALERT COLOR IN BACKGROUND OF ICON (0=OLD WAY - BGCOLOR) bgwarn=1 #CONVERT TEMPS AND WINDSPEED TO METRIC, IF SET. metric=0 #DO NOT DISPLAY MESSAGE TO STDERR WHEN FETCHING WEATHER FROM WEB: silent=0 #DO NOT DUMP DEBUG INFORMATION TO STDERR debug=0 5) Copy the image "tkweather.gif" to $HOME/tkweather/ 6) Copy tkweather.pl to somewhere in your PATH or wherever you want to be able to run it from. Make sure line 1 points to your perl interpreter. 7) To make this app appear in your AfterStep/Windowmaker "wharf", add the following to your config file: *Wharf Tkwather - MaxSwallow "Tkweather" tkweather.pl & 8) run tkweather.pl -h to view which options can be set on the command-line (options set on the command line overrule those set in the configuration file). 9) Enjoy!