Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!haven!mimsy!tove.umd.edu!folta
From: folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: uw
Summary: Is this a little-known gem or a well-known gem?
Message-ID: <17047@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 21 Apr 89 22:14:54 GMT
Sender: nobody@mimsy.UUCP
Reply-To: folta@tove.umd.edu.UUCP (Wayne Folta)
Distribution: usa
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, gs
Lines: 23

I just downloaded the 'uw' program from sumex-aim, and found it to be the
most incrediblely interesting program I have seen in a long time!  I imagine
that maybe others are ignorant about it also, so here is a one paragraph
description.

uw is actually two programs, one you run on a BSD 4.3 (or 4.2) system, and
one you run on your Mac.  The server on the BSD end will use ptys to
set up as many as 7 shells for you, and the client on the Mac will put
each one in its own resizeable window.  This works across SERIAL, DIAL-UP
lines!  This means that you can dial up your local VAX and have multiple
windows, without using a Sun over Ethernet, or X-windows, or any of the
other big ticket items you might otherwise need.

As far as I know, this is the only program that lets you set up
a multi-window environment over dial-up lines.  (It does VT52, ADM31, and
TEK4010 emulations.  In the future, downloading protocols are planned.  Last,
the uw protocol seems fairly-well defined, and might make it to the (ugh) IBM
world *someday*.)

Congratulations to John D. Bruner, its author.


Wayne Folta          (folta@tove.umd.edu  128.8.128.42)