[self-interest] remote GUI

[Jecel Assumpcao Jr.]

Vincent wrote:
> I recently implemented Morphic (well not exactly, but something very very
> similar) in Java.

That reminds me of something else. I need a way to access Kansas (the Self GUI)
from across the network. This is not possible for the Mac version, but I will
be using Sparc so simply installing an X Window server on the client machine
(confused yet?) would seem to solve my problem. Except this network goes
through a 33kbps modem so it would be too slow for practical use.

Since VNC (http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/) is often mentioned as a
lightweight alternative to X, I was considering implementing a vncWindow
object. This would allow Kansas to be multiuser on the Mac as well, which is a
good thing. This problem is that VNC seems to be optimized for high speed
networks (it transfers compressed bitmaps) and not modems.

An alternative would be to create a remoteCanvas object that would talk to a
counterpart written in Java (which is where Morphic in Java comes in) and
running on the client. It should transfer less bytes (send the info that we
drew a green circle, and not all the bits of the circle) but I am afraid that I
am just creating X all over again.

Does anyone have any experience with these things?
-- Jecel