Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!bionet!ames!think!barmar
From: barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Multiple-server X clients - do they exist?
Keywords: X
Message-ID: <29002@news.Think.COM>
Date: 7 Sep 89 23:02:34 GMT
References: <3522@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Sender: news@Think.COM
Distribution: usa
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Lines: 30

In article <3522@blake.acs.washington.edu> mbader@cac.washington.edu (Mark Bader) writes:
>Does anyone know if a multiple-server X client is possible?  

Certainly.  An application program can call XOpenDisplay as many times
as it wants, with a different host name each time.

>For
>instance, is there a way to start up an X client and sent its output
>to multiple displays at the same time?

This sounds like you're talking about taking an existing application
that only uses one display and making it automatically deal with
multiple displays.  If it only calls XOpenDisplay once, it will only
talk to one server.

>Is this possible by hacking the source?  Or is there an easier way to
>do it (a new feature for X11R4?)

What you could do is implement a multiplexing pseudo-server.  This
could be a server that simply forwards X requests to multiple normal
servers, and forwards events from the servers back to the clients.  I
don't know how you would deal with different responses from the
different servers, though (e.g., if the client asks for the dimensions
of the root window, which response should be forwarded?).

Barry Margolin
Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
{uunet,harvard}!think!barmar