jfreem@uncecs.edu (Joe Freeman) (01/07/91)
This is a call for testers for GreyBoard, a multi-user drawing prgram based on the Draw sources provided by NeXT. GreyBoard is a drawing program that allows users, connect by ethernet links, to conference with a common drawing sheet. The program supports the features of 2.0 draw, such as Services, color panel, EPS, Tiff and pasteboard. Sources are available on nova or sonata at Purdue in the file is pub/next/2.0software/greyboard.tar.Z. The program is provided in source form so that people can see how the thing works. It does not require public window server, but you should still only conference with people you trust. A user calls a conference by running the program and informinging it to start the conference server. The server is responsible for letting people in the conference, arbitrating who is allowed to draw and recording who leaves. It has no idea what is really going on in the conference or what anyone's screen actually looks like. Additional users join the conference by running GreyBoard and telling it what machine the conference is being held on. GreyBoard will connect and notify everyone that the new user has joined. Users with faces in /LocalLibrary/Images/People will have them displayed. Drawing rights are controlled by a "marker" icon. There are instructions on how to pass the marker around. Users without the marker can request it but cannot draw until they have it. All actions taken by the user with the marker will be reflected on remote screens. Dynamic operations, resizing and moving, will not be seen untill complete but all user's screens will be synchronized when the operaiton is done. EPS and TIFF files opened on one machine will appear on all. YOU SHOULD REMEMBER THAT when joining a conference with someone. This is different from some of the demo apps in that any user can manipulate the drawing objects. They are not just a screen shot or postscript stream. This program is not commercial grade and is meant to spark some interest in interpersonal computing and how easy it is on the NeXT. The whole program including the network code, server and all client code only took 33 man hours on top of the original Draw code. Remember 2.0 is required. -- Joe Freeman jfreem@ecsvax.uncecs.edu The opinions espressed here are my own and are not shared by my employer or anyone else I know of. Flames can be mailed to me or routed to /dev/null.