[Fwd: Re: managing multiple participants]

[Andrew Chan]

Hi Andre,

I haven't spent much time looking at the Unix vnc source, but from a 
quick glance, it looks like it's structured quite differently from the 
Windows code.   :(  Thus, porting my changes would not be 
straightforward (and the changes are still in progress - the modified 
system isn't robust enough yet to be used in any production environment).

Sorry about that; I wish you luck in finding an alternate solution.

andrew.



Andre Merzky wrote:

>>-------- Original Message --------
>>
>>Hi there,
>>
>>    
>>
>>>When I start a vnc server enabling others to share the session using a
>>>common password, I would like to being able to switch between active
>>>and passive participants. I could imagine different modes of operation:
>>>
>>>1) one active user - many observer
>>>2) many active users (sending mouse/keyboard events) - many observer
>>>3) all active users
>>>      
>>>
>>With a stock vnc installation, there is no way to do this that I am aware
>>of.
>>
>>I am curious - are you running a Windows vnc server, where all
>>participants see the same remote desktop? It's my understanding that with
>>a *nix vnc server, each client gets their own desktop.
>>    
>>
>
>We do run on Unix (SGI and/or Linux), but here the behaviour is
>the same: each client sees the same desktop.  You can start
>multiple servers (with multiple desktops) though.  I do not know
>about windows.
>
>
>  
>
>>If you are running a Windows server, in the many/all active user cases, do
>>you want different participants' mouse and key strokes to be combined by
>>the vnc server? Or do you want one participant to control the server at a
>>time?
>>    
>>
>
>The combination of client inputs is already working natively -
>you can use VNC in kollaborative mode, where all clients are
>allowed to give input - quite messy sometimes :-)
>
>Also, you can configure it the way that only one (or a subset of)
>client(s) has control - the other would connect read-only then.
>
>Our exact problem is that you specify that behaviour on startup -
>we would like to move the input fokus around on runtime...
>
>
>  
>
>>I ask because I am a graduate student doing research in this area. As a
>>part of the research, I have been modifying the Windows vnc 3.3.7 server
>>and client to support multiple clients, but only with one client in
>>control at a time. The other clients can observe, ask for control, and
>>get it, in a manner similar to Microsoft NetMeeting.
>>    
>>
>
>That sounds about what we want! :-)  As said, I do not know about
>windows - is your work portable to the Unix-version of VNC?
>
>Cheers, thanks for your reply!
>
>Andre & Stefan.
>
>  
>
>>andrew.
>>
>>
>>Andrew Chan
>>M.Sc. Candidate, Department of Computer Science
>>University of British Columbia, Canada
>>[5]www.cs.ubc.ca/~chana
>>
>>References
>>
>>   1. mailto:chana@cs.ubc.ca
>>   2. mailto:stefan@zachow.org
>>   3. mailto:vnc-list@realvnc.com
>>   4. mailto:3FB0E44D.6090001@zib.de
>>   5. http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~chana