Grab

Grab is a simple command-line program that'll give you a screen capture in any format supported by your installed collection of Translators. This is handy for mixing with shell scripting:

• store screen captures periodically while doing something
• capture the screen after a delay
• etc.

Using grab

Simply typing grab into a Terminal will capture the screen to a TARGA file named Screen_Grab in the current directory.

The grab command has several useful options:

-c

Display the mouse cursor in the screen capture. (This doesn't appear to work on my system, which has a Voodoo3 video card; I'm not sure if that's a BeOS bug or a limitation of the Voodoo3 drivers.)

-f format_code

Write the screen capture in the specified Translation Kit format (use translate --list for a list of codes). For example: -f 'TGA ' will create a TARGA file.

-o output_filename

Write the screen capture to the specified output filename. The default is Screen_Grab in the current directory.

-t MIME_type

Write the screen capture in the format specified by the given MIME type. For example, -t image/x-targa will create a TARGA file. You must have an appropriate Translator installed.

Default type if no format code (-f) or MIME type (-t) is specified is image/x-targa.

Installation

To install Grab, just drop the grab executable on the Drop "grab" here! symbolic link. Now you can grab from any Terminal or shell script!

Technical Support

If you're having a problem with Grab, Arcane Dragon Software's technical support wizards (i.e., me) can be reached at arcanedragon@pobox.com; I'll try to help you as soon as possible, but it could take a couple of days (I sometimes have an erratic work schedule).

License and Registration

Grab is released as really cheap shareware. You can use the unregistered version of Grab for one month before pangs of guilt will start to eat away at your insides, and you'll realise that if you don't support BeOS software developers, you'll never get that Really Cool Tractor App™ that you've been waiting for.

Registering Grab will cost you $5 US. Big deal. Some people will spend more than that on an imported beer, and it's way less than a CD. When BeBits gets their e-commerce stuff in place, you'll be able to register Grab online, until then, you'll have to send a check or money-order for $5 US to:

Chris Herborth,
Arcane Dragon Software
409-1071 Ambleside Drive,
Ottawa, Ontario
K2B 6V4
CANADA

When registering, please include the following information: your name, email address, where you live (just the country is enough information), and the URL to any BeOS-related web pages you look after (that's optional; if you do send a URL, I'll add it to my BeOS Community web pages).

Registration entitles you to these exciting features:

• You'll no longer feel guilty every time you capture the screen with Grab.
• You'll get the complete Grab source code sent to your email address. The source will be sent to you with a BSD-style license, which means you can do anything you want with it, even use it in your own applications.
• You'll get free updates until the next major revision; registering version 2.0 will also be much cheaper for people who registered version 1.0 (half price).

If you don't like these terms, or you don't find Grab useful, delete it. It's as simple as that.

Distribution

You can distribute this Grab archive complete and unmodified on any CD-ROM collection, FTP site, web server, etc. as long as you're not charging people for it. Charging a small fee for CD-ROM duplication is acceptable as long as Grab isn't the only application on the CD.

Version History

1.2	(October 12, 1999) Convert screens to 32-bit before feeding to Translators; some of the Translators (such as the TARGA Translator, for example) can't cope with 15-bit or 16-bit data very well. Properly apply a MIME type to the created file. Added BSD-style LICENSE to source distrubtion (since I finally had a source distribution :-)).
1.1	(September 19, 1999) Default format is now image/x-targa, which is correct. grab with no arguments now works as advertised.
1.0	(September 18, 1999) First release.

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Last updated: $Date: 1999/10/12 20:10:13 $