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 ![[ Photo of D. Bagley]](../../common/images/David-B.jpg)  by  David Bagley
 <bagleyd(at)tux.org>
 
 About the author:
 
 David is the maintainer of xlock | 
 
Interview of David Bagley
 ![[Illustration]](../../common/images/white.gif) 
Abstract:
    This is an interview with David Bagley. David is a unicycler
    (yeah and before you as k I can juggle too), a vegetarian (I
    love animals), and father of 2 cute girls. He is also the
    maintainer of xlock.
    
    LF: You maintain xlock, could
    you tell me the history of xlock ?
    
    D.Bagley: Well it all started when I got on an HP and
    found there was no way to lock my screen on the X Window
    System. I was familiar with xlock from Sun and although I new
    of xscreensaver ... I preferred the modes from xlock. So I
    ported xlock to the HP and added a few more modes (spline,
    maze, sphere, hyper, helix, rock, & blot) most stolen from
    xscreensaver. I asked Patrick Naughton, the original author of
    xlock, if he would like to add it to his distribution. Patrick
    said he was too busy and that I could maintain xlock.
    LF: Under which OS or computer
    do you maintain or test xlockmore ?
    
    D.Bagley: I used to test using HP, SunOS, and VMS but
    now I only have access to Solaris (work) and Linux (home).
    LF: How many different kinds of
    computers does this software support?
    
    D.Bagley: I try to make it so its only requirements are
    X and UNIX/VMS. I have a lead on an NT port but I am pretty
    die-hard UNIX advocate. I added the requirement of an ANSI-C
    compiler. It cut out a few old UNIX boxes but they can always
    get gcc. This made maintenance a little easier since patches in
    my mail would always come in ANSI-C.
    LF: Do you know how many copies
    of xlock now run in the world ( on Linux box, on BSD , on Sun,
    on HP ...) May be hundred may be million ?
    
    D.Bagley: Yeah I do not keep track. On many
    distributions of Linux, xlock is loaded by default if they load
    the X, so it could be up there.
    LF: The license I prefer for
    software, is cardware, everyone who likes your software should
    send you a post card ? :) look at
    http://www.xbae.syd.net.au/postcards.html you could see my name
    :) ?
    
    D.Bagley: Yeah. I prefer BSD style copyright. I prefer
    as few restrictions as possible while preserving the author's
    name on the code. Also I can not really change it anyway since
    I am not the original author of xlock. How about Belgian
    Chocolate ware... if you live in Belgium and use xlock you are
    required to send 500g of assorted chocolates (no coconut
    please).
    LF: On how many computers is
    the software installed (may be with all Linux, on BSD Sun, on
    HP , on .....)?
    
    D.Bagley: I don't know. My estimate is to multiply my
    monthly mail by 1000. So I guess maybe 80000 know enough about
    xlock to run it from the command line. (I find Christmas time
    depressing because I do not get much xlock mail :( ).
    LF: What kind of problems do
    you encounter with xlock ?
    
    D.Bagley: Finding time. There is so much I would like to
    do. I am always suffering from sleep deprivation. After 5 years
    maintaining xlock, there are parts of xlock where I am not
    comfortable changing. I usually try to tackle easy problems
    first in my extensive TODO list. TrueColor problems are hard
    for me to figure out, especially lately since I no longer have
    a 24 bit display to play with. :(
    LF: xlock(more) has around 70
    modes ? Which one do you prefer, and why ?
    
    D.Bagley: Yeah I recently counted 90. Its getting out of
    hand. I guess I like the "boring" life modes, and ant, crystal,
    and penrose. Fixing up "life" was one of my initial
    inspirations in taking on xlockmore. Some of the initial life
    configurations in the Sun version of xlock have small mistakes
    which cause them to eventually die. Penrose is really neat
    besides all the complicated math behind it, it sometimes makes
    mistakes and it later figures out that it can not tile anymore
    without creating an imperfection (run with -verbose to have it
    notify you).
    LF: How many people work on
    this software ?
    
    D.Bagley: I usually have 6 or so regulars who bombard me
    with fixes and updates. Many others have sent patches,
    suggestions and modes. I want to take this time to especially
    thank Jouk Jansen who has been helping me very consistently for
    many years (author of the crystal mode).
    LF: Do you think the command
    line interface is dead, and now everything is GUI (Graphical
    User Interface)?
    
    D.Bagley: Its kind of sad. I think I can get more work
    out of a command line than a mouse. I still like games like
    Adventure and hack too. Its kind of restrictive to have text
    screensavers though... the only thing I can think of hand is
    falling letters. ( without intervue ) ( SCO got one
    text-screensaver , I may be I'll make it :) ?
    LF: Xlock has a competitor,
    xscreensaver. What kind of contact do you have together
    ?
    
    D.Bagley: Jamie Zawinski (the author and maintainer of
    xscreensaver) and I have had many arguments and discussions. I
    admit xscreensaver is a superior product, but I prefer the ease
    of running xlock (just one "simple" command). During periods of
    cooperation we (Jamie did the bigger part) made it so that
    xlock modes can be easily compiled into xscreensaver. We still
    make it a point to steal good ideas from each other. We
    recently have a agreement to share files (i.e. no changes)
    where practical. We'll see how it goes.
    LF: What do you think about the
    other screensavers like after dark or screensavers for
    Microsoft ?
    
    D.Bagley: It has a nice user interface, if you are into
    that sort of thing. I think xlock has some weird options that
    would never show up on Microsoft... like -use3d, just in case
    you have 3d glasses handy. Its the kind of option that is not
    likely to appear unless source code is freely distributed and
    patches can be fed back to the maintainer.
    LF: Some 3D modes have appeared
    in xlock, after the third version. How do you analyse this
    evolution?
    
    D.Bagley: In retrospect, earlier main version changes
    have been quite arbitrary. However, from version 3 to version
    4, I adopted OpenGL and GNU's configure and also broke up the
    source into separate directories. The 3d stuff (OpenGL) is
    pretty cool. Its here to stay, especially since Microsoft
    adopted it. I would like to see more modes written using it. A
    text3d mode is currently in development.
    LF: How does the community of
    UNIX or Linux users react to your work ? Tell us about the CD
    SuSE gave you a CD, email, a story board someone sent
    you.
    
    D.Bagley: About half my mail is from Linux users. I
    always enjoy receiving mail and patches about xlock. Support
    from the web is a major component of xlock. I am also very
    grateful for SuSE (a major Linux distributor) in distributing
    their Linux CD to me, because I am a developer/maintainer.
    LF: Will you stop maintaining
    xlock soon ?
    
    D.Bagley: I have a standing offer for anyone with more
    time than me to take it up. (I would like some patches for
    xlock first so I know its going into safe hands). Then I could
    concentrate on improving modes (which was why I got into this).
    Much of my time is taken up answering mail, testing,
    maintaining the main part of the xlock program and adding
    patches. In reality though, I think it would be hard for me to
    give xlock up, since I always seem to make time for it (my wife
    says I should get paid for it). I recently got a more demanding
    job so I have less time to devote to xlock... I also want to
    update xabacus someday, but my email is just about 100% about
    xlock, so I never get around to it.
    LF: What do you think about
    Linux Free BSD, and free software in general ( GNU gcc, emacs,
    Open source netscape ) ?
    
    D.Bagley: Its great to have the source. Its also great
    to allow users to feedback suggestions and patches back in to
    the distribution. I think more work should be done in getting
    gcc to work faster on different architectures. I have no
    expertise in that department. I use gcc and SunC all the time.
    emacs, yuck, I am a vi user even on my "DOS" machine. I like vi
    since as an administrator its guaranteed to be on the system
    (at least in the commercial world). One problem I have with vi
    on Linux is there is no standard vi. I love the new features,
    like multiple undo's, but other features of vi that I am used
    to sometimes do not work. Open source netscape, yeah I think
    that was Jamie Zawinski's idea (one of his many cool ideas). I
    do not know how he finds so much time to put into xscreensaver
    too.
    LF: What do you think about
    Solaris giving the source code free ( 20 $ for the CD with port
    ).
    
    D.Bagley: Wow. Thats the first I have heard of it. If I
    did not know about Linux I would probably get it. Since I need
    different operating systems to test, I'll keep my Linux machine
    for home use. I would really hate to choose though if I could
    only have one. DEC should do the same thing with VMS but they
    are probably not likely to. By the way, I really hate the name
    xlockmore... but what can I do now? I did not give it too much
    thought when I first started maintaining it. I wanted a name
    where it was easy to tell I was not the original developer.
    
  
2002-09-13, generated by lfparser version 2.31