Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!mouse
From: mouse@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (der Mouse)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Multi-screen XServer: Where can I find one?
Keywords: multi-screen xserver available
Message-ID: <1991Jun29.104006.18467@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>
Date: 29 Jun 91 10:40:06 GMT
References: <906@pdxvme.pdx.csd.mot.com> <1991Jun28.034016.9875@dsd.es.com>
Organization: McGill Research Centre for Intelligent Machines
Lines: 30

In article <1991Jun28.034016.9875@dsd.es.com>, rthomson@mesa.dsd.es.com (Rich Thomson) writes:
> In article <906@pdxvme.pdx.csd.mot.com>
> 	cah@pdx.csd.mot.com (Chris Huey) writes:
>> Does anybody, anywhere know of an X server capable of supporting
>> multiple screens?  Each screen should be able to support 1280x1024
>> resolution.
> I'm not sure if your asking about a server capable of supporting
> several screens, or several physical displays.  The two are distinct,
> because one can support multiple video interfaces to a single frame
> buffer (e.g. monoscopic or stereo) via screens, while multiple
> physical monitors are usually implemented through multiple displays.

They shouldn't be, unless each monitor has its own keyboard and pointer
device.

An X display consists of one keyboard, one pointer, and one or more
screens.  These screens are conceptually different monitors.  While
it's possible to multiplex multiple screens onto a single monitor, this
is an ugly kludge; simply supporting multiple visuals on one screen is
probably a better fit to the X model.  The sample server for Suns, for
example, supports the cg4 overlay plane as a distinct screen, but the
associated documentation (a comment in the code, I think) mentions that
the right way to do it would be to support both a 1-bit and an 8-bit
visual instead....

					der Mouse

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