Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-sally!ut-emx!lad-shrike!milano!macondo!simon
From: simon@macondo.SW.MCC.COM (Simon John Gibbs)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.news
Subject: multiple-server clients
Keywords: NeWS cps
Message-ID: <853@macondo.SW.MCC.COM>
Date: 1 Jul 88 03:43:38 GMT
Organization: MCC, Austin, TX
Lines: 35

I have been writing NeWS applications where clients
need to connect to more than one NeWS server. The problem
is that the cps interface seems to be written under the assumption
that a client is only dealing with one server (the one
running on the host in the NEWSSERVER environment variable).

Why build a server based window system and then build in restrictions
that make it difficult for clients to connect?

What I ended up doing is modifying cps and libcps
so that the client now does:

	cid = ps_open_PostScript(host)
	ps_close_PostScript(cid)
	ps_flush_PostScript(cid)

where host is a string and cid a small integer (ps_open_PostScript
could easily be extended to include a port if one had multiple
servers per machine).

The cps files are the same, but if there's something like

	cdef ps_fun(x, y, z)

The call from the C client looks like:

	ps_fun(cid, x, y, z)

Now my problem is I have a non-standard cps and libcps.

What I was wondering is whether there's a better way to do this,
or, if not, if anyone knows whats happening with cps etc.
in the next release of NeWS (the NeWS/X11 merge?) ??

Regards - Simon Gibbs   (simon@mcc.com)