VNCX & a new windows viewer to try out

[Thong Nguyen]

> I lack time to wrap the OCX into a Delphi component (never done that
> yet, besides), so I've only played with Viewer32. BTW, you should give
> it a "real name" such as "VNCxView", it deserves it, and one could
> non-ambiguously refer to it.

Doesn't delphi like support ActiveX really well?  Should be 'drag and dro=
p'
like VB almost shouldn't it? :)
Maybe, VNCxView looked too complicated.  Viewer32 is straight to the poin=
t.
It views stuff and is 32bit or Win32 :P.
Thought Viewer32 doesn't really indicate it has anything whatsoever to do
with VNC *sigh*.
I did have a viewer called VNCXViewer at one time, it looked too much lik=
e
AT&T's VNCViewer :)....confusing.

>
> I prefered a more standard installation in "C:\Program Files\VNCxView\"
> and there's no prob with the LFN. About those 3 DLLs that may need to b=
e
> upgraded, note there's at least one which seems always "in use" by the
> system (MSVCRT.DLL) so you would have to instruct people about rebootin=
g
> in DOS mode if they need to replace it.

You can install it anywhere, as long as vncx.dll is located in the same
folder as Viewer32 or the Windows or System folder, Viewer32 will find th=
e
control.  You can actually put vncx.dll anywhere you want as long as you =
run
"regsvr32" to register it into the registry, but Viewer32 won't be able t=
o
'autofix' it if for some reason the registry entry dissapears, or you're
putting it on a new machine.

I thought I did say something about having to reboot into DOS, I'll have =
to
check :).
It's rare for anyone to need to update it tho, if they have MSVCRT, they'=
ll
probably be fine.
This is an experimental version, no setup program etc.

>
> So, Viewer32 works perfect on a french W95 OSR2. I used it today for
> various remote administration tasks, no crashes, no odd behaviors
> compared to my usual viewer. The target hosts were all using your
> zlib-enhanced copy of WinVNC server.
>

Great!  I have discovered a little bug with artifacts when scrolling, but
I've fixed that for the next version.
Forgot to lock the DC from being drawn from the worker thread when i scro=
ll
the window :).
I've also made it so that holding down Ctrl will make autoscrolling about=
 5
times faster.

> IMO, the #1 feature to add would be compatible support with existing
> .vnc files (as used by the ATT viewer and the zlib-enhanced one), with
> additional entries for settings particular to your viewer (zoom, fit,
> statusbar/menuBar visibility, etc.) on a per-connection basis rather
> than application-wide. This is the only point that prevents me from
> switching from the ATT+zlib viewer to your one. [From the grayed items
> in the viewer, this seems to be already scheduled...]
>

Hrm.. yes, I am planning to do that.  I didn't realise that AT&T's viewer
had .vnc files, I was planning on writing my own but couldn't settle on a
format.  I guess I can settle on a format now :).


> The "View|Fit|Auto" mode doesn't work when you enabled/disable statusBa=
r
> etc., one have to force it with Fit|Now. Also, before you make a
> connection, this setting is grayed and you can neither modify it nor se=
e
> the stored value it'll use for next connection.
>

Yes, the way auto fit works is that it only does 'autofit' when you chang=
e
the stretch mode, I did a bit of experimentation and found out that was t=
he
only time where i really needed it.  I didn't like the idea of constraini=
ng
the window to not being able to be resized (what would have to be done),
applications that do that annoy me.
But that's just my opinion :).


> Other useful tools on iconbar would be "Upload local clipboard to serve=
r
> clipboard" and "Download server clipboard to local clipboard", and two
> lights indicating "currently sending" and "currently receiving", =E0 la
> PCAnywhere.
>

Yes, definitely, I'm working on supporting explorer desktop bands (the
quicklaunch bar type things) as pluggable objects in the Viewer.  But tha=
t's
a long way off.  But you get the idea of what I'm trying to do.

BTW, "Download server clipboard" unfortunately isn't a feature that's
possible at the moment due to limitations of RFB :((((.  IMHO this should=
 be
the way it's done.  The server should send a "clipboard changed" and the
Viewer can _choose_ to download it when it wants.  Much nicer.
Oh well, another thing to go onto the "Features needed fpr RFB 4.0" list.
I should mention here that RFB4.0 needs to use UNICODE strings.

> Last note: for sending Ctrl+Alt+Del there's already a very practical
> shortcut which is AltGr+Del (and it works from your viewer too). Your
> additional Ctrl+Alt+Backspace shortcut may be useful on a keyboard
> lacking the AltGr key, tho.
>

Don't have AltGr in New Zealand :).
Must be a european thing hehe.

> All in all, this is great stuff.
>
> Not bad for an alpha "Experimental release 0.0.0.2"=A0:-)

Thanks :D


-
Thong (Tum) Nguyen
http://www.veridicus.com
-


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send a message with the line: unsubscribe vnc-list
to majordomo "at" uk.research.att.com
See also: http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/intouch.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------