SUMMARY: Looking for software to view X/OW windows on mulitple systems

From: Doug Kratky (dgk3247@voltaire.ks.boeing.com)
Date: Thu Sep 24 1992 - 00:56:38 CDT


My original message was:
> Does anyone know of any OpenWindows/X software that would allow me display
> in real time the image of one window on more than one system. For example,
> a sysadmin sitting at system X could watch (and therefore help) a user
> running an application on system Y.

I received many helpful responses. The application that worked best for
my needs was XMX (available on wilma.cs.brown.edu as /pub/xmx.tar.Z). It
was easy to compile and run. XMX is a psuedo X server that can display an
X application on multiple displays (but only takes input from one display).
I did have several warning messages and problems with color allocations as
it ran, though. It appears the software hasn't been updated for a couple
of years, but it was quite useful.

xwatchwin (or xwatchwin2) can watch a window on another X window. One
advantage it has is that it can be invoked after an application is already
running. Its disadvantages include that each window to be watched must be
individually selected and it can be difficult to determine the window ids
of the windows you want to watch. Archie shows several locations for
xwatchwin.

Also, a Sun can "watch" another Sun by putting the following commands in
a loop:
   rsh target screendump > /tmp/targetscreen
   screenload /tmp/targetscreen

shX looked interesting. It has more features than XMX, but is also quite
a bit more complicated to compile and use. This software was based on X11R3
and is found at gatekeeper.dec.com as /pub/X11/contrib/shX.tar.Z.

Christian Sebeke sent me this FAQ from comp.windows.x:

-----------------------CUT-----------------------

Subject: 89)! How can I "tee" an X program identically to several displays?

        There are several protocol multiplexer tools which provide for the
simultaneous display of X clients on any number of machines.
        XMX (an X Protocol Multiplexor) is available from wilma.cs.brown.edu
(128.148.31.66) as pub/xmx.tar.Z It works independently of the server and does
not affect the application being shared; it was developed for use in the
electronic classroom.
        XTV is a conference program which can be used to duplicate the
"chalkboard" on several displays. Release 1 is available on the X11R5 contrib
tapes; a more recent version is on ftp.cs.odu.edu as pub/wahab/XTV.r2.tar.Z.
        SHX from Michael Altenhofen of Digital Equipment GmbH CEC Karlsruhe
also does this; it is a "WYSIWIS" (What You See Is What I See) package in the
context of a computer-based learning/training tool to provide online help from
remote tutors but is also useful for general window sharing. Information:
shX@nestvx.enet.dec.com. SHX can be found on export and
                gatekeeper.dec.com:/pub/X11/contrib/shX.tar.Z,
                crl.dec.com:/pub/X11/contrib/shX.tar.Z
Modifications to SHX for color mapping and private color allocation by
Mark J. Handley (M.Handley@cs.ucl.ac.uk) are on cs.ucl.ac.uk in
car/shX.car.tar.Z.
        XTrap is implemented as a server/library extension and can be used
to record and then replay an x session. It is available as:
                gatekeeper.dec.com pub/X11/contrib/XTrap_v31.tar.Z
                export.lcs.mit.edu contrib/XTrap_v31.tar.Z
        wscrawl can be used as a "multi-person paint program". It's available
on sax.stanford.edu as wscrawl.shar.Z.
        Shdr implements a simple shared whiteboard, without a chalk-passing
mechanism. It's available on parcftp.xerox.com as pub/europarc/shdr.tar.Z.

Also of use:
        Hewlett-Packard Co. has a commercial product, "HP SharedX" which works
under HP-UX currently on their 300, 400, and 700 series workstations and their
HP 700/RX X Stations. Machines receiving shared windows can be any X server.
HP SharedX consists of a server extensions and a Motif based user interface
process. Contact your local HP sales rep. for more information.
        IBM offers a commercial product.
        Sun offers multi-user confering software called ShowMe.
        InSoft (Mechanicsburg, PA, USA) offers multi-user confering software
called Communique.

[Thanks in part to scott@spectra.com (Tim Scott), 5/91, and to Peter Cigehn
(peter@lulea.trab.se), 8/92 ]

-----------------------CUT-----------------------

Thanks to everyone who responded:
      "Chris P. Ross" <cross@eng.umd.edu>
      ken@mars.cse.fau.edu (Kenneth Maier)
      blymn@awadi.com.AU (Brett Lymn)
      david@srv.PacBell.COM (David St. Pierre)
      tim@otis.hssc.scarolina.edu (Tim White)
      Christopher Carpinello <chrisc@cs.odu.edu>
      Christian Sebeke <cseb@frodo.lfi.uni-hannover.de>
      sommer@vsun02.ag01.Kodak.com (Tilman Sommer)
      birger@vest.sdata.no (Birger A. Wathne)
      Arie Bikker <aribi@geo.vu.nl>
      John Hasley<hasley@andy.bgsu.edu>
      stern@sunne.East.Sun.COM (Hal Stern - NE Area Systems Engineer)
      Dave <bianco@cs.odu.edu>
      paulo@dcc.unicamp.br (Paulo Licio de Geus)
      boudreau@crim.ca (Guy Boudreault)
      Andrew Purshottam <andy@autodesk.com>
      "Donald A. MacLeod" <dmacleod@mailbox.syr.edu>
      arch@gandalf.pei.com (Arch Mott)
      J_Burnetti%MW.W50S1@mwmgate1.mitre.org
      pthomas@netcom.com (Phillip Thomas)
      Brian Bartholomew <bb@math.ufl.edu>

Doug Kratky
Boeing Wichita
dk3247@ks.boeing.com



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