klee@daisy.UUCP (Ken Lee) (02/09/89)
I've been hearing about a number of X output extensions, such as PEX,
but am wondering if anyone is working on input extensions. The NeWS
concept of lightweight, server-resident, event handlers seems to be a
major performance gain for highly interactive clients.
Some simple examples:
return a string, instead of every typed character
return region enter/exit, instead of motion events or creating
(not so free) windows
various forms of grid snapping
Although NeWS allows each client to define (at run time) its own
server extensions, a small set of hard coded extensions would still
be valuable. Is anyone doing this sort of thing? Can it be done
at all with the current extension mechanism?
Thanks for any info.
Ken Lee
--
klee@daisy.uucp
Daisy Systems Corp., Interactive Graphics Tools Dept.mh@wlbr.EATON.COM (Mike Hoegeman) (02/10/89)
In article <2651@daisy.UUCP> klee@daisy.UUCP (Ken Lee) writes: >I've been hearing about a number of X output extensions, such as PEX, >but am wondering if anyone is working on input extensions. The NeWS >concept of lightweight, server-resident, event handlers seems to be a >major performance gain for highly interactive clients. > >Some simple examples: > return a string, instead of every typed character > return region enter/exit, instead of motion events or creating > (not so free) windows > various forms of grid snapping > >Although NeWS allows each client to define (at run time) its own >server extensions, a small set of hard coded extensions would still >be valuable. We do a fair amount of output/input extending w/ NeWS and it works great!! I think it is a real mistake to "hard code" extensions Our NeWS machines have to "share" a keyboard and a mouse with a second (radar display) machine. the keyboard and mouse are hooked up to NeWS machine and when the user hits the 'switch' key we redirect all the keyboard and mouse events through a serial line, translating the keys into what the other machine wants for key/mouse codes. It works great!! and it's more than fast enough for the job. Here's another example. We also have a NeWS machine hooked up to a large screen display. There are a whole bunch of NeWS machines in one room which are facing the large screen machine. With NeWS we wrote a little i/o extension that let's any user use their keyboard and mouse on the large screen display simply by moving their mouse past the top of their screen, their cursor then warps to the large screen display and they can log in , run programs, use menus, whatever, on the large screen display. To move back to their local machine they simply move their mouse cursor down past the bottom of the large screen and they are warped back to their local machine. It's really neat! and best of all WE DID IT WITHOUT HACKING ANY OF THE SERVER!. These two i/o extenders took a grand total of two or three days to code and have been running great ever since. It even runs using different styles of keyboards. just specify which postscript dictionary it should use for the keycode mapping and it's all set. Anyway, what I'm getting at is it's worth considering doing extensions at run time and NOT hardcoding them into the server. It works and it's a helluva lot more flexible then wiring it into the server. I wish X would gravitate more toward being extensible. -mike (mike@etn.wlv.eaton.com)
frode@m2cs.uu.no (Frode Odegard) (02/12/89)
Before switching to NeWS (oh, hill thee...), I used to run SunView on my 3/60 with a color montor and a monochrome monitor. Having to monitors was wonderful, and I'm sure it made me more productive. I tried the same think with NeWS, but what happened was that the keyboard went wild. This wasn't surprising, after all the two display servers were sharing it. Can I make NeWS work this way without having to buy the source code for the display server? [Of course, I would also like to be able to move windows and icons back and forth, but I expect that's too much to hope for...] - Frode -- | Frode L. Odegard |"The world is coming to an end! Repent and| | Modula-2 CASE Systems |rm /bin/cc" | | NORWAY (EUROPE) | | | Email: frode@m2cs.uu.no | |