Dear gurus:
This is a generic set of question by an ordinary mortal addressed to
those gurus out there that can still speak ordinary English, and that
will have the patience to read this letter.
I have addressed these question to the vnc creators but only got a
standard answer telling me to look at the documentation or to write
a letter such as this to the user community.
By what I will say you will see that the documentation does not answer
all the questions
What does vnc actually do for its users, regardless of how it does it?
I have only a passing interest in the beauty of the vnc technology which
is admittedly awesome
>From the documentation it appears that what it does is to make it
possible for a remote user to have a copy of the desktop of some host to
which it is connected, and with the desirable property of being
independent of the architectures of the machines involved.
For ignoramuses such as myself, this simple explanation opens a pandora
box of questions, which are not readily answered by the documentation or
by the archived questions to the user community questions which are
invariably arcane or have limited scope.
1) What exactly is a "desktop" in this context. When one starts Windows
one get a collection of icons to which one gradually adds many more to
access frequently used applications.
A typical user that wants a serious session with one application, will
have it automatically open a window in which it will reside.
If one does not want to be bothered by distractions, one fills the
screen with that one application and the original deskstop will
disappear, except for some handles to recover it.
In other cases, a more scatter brained user will fill the screen with
several applications, occasionally mutually pasting their contents via
the clipboard.
2) Enter vnc. The remote user has fired his computer which, for
argument sakes, we will assume is a Windows machine that happens to
have the same icons in the same locations as the previous one.
Before a connection is established, both users will be looking at the
same screen,(if no applications have been opened by the host) not
because vnc will have done anything, but because the screens are
identical in the first place.
Assume now that vnc is fired. In ways that do not interest us at the
moment, the remote user will have a "version" of the screen that is
present at the host.
If there were no provisions for the creation of a special window at the
remote machine to contain the contents of the host screen, (a window
that would not occupy the whole of the remote screen), we would have the
disconcerting fact that the remote computer would not know if what he is
looking at is his original screen or a version of what the host has.
In other words, if the remote computer is to remain the master of his
affairs he should be able to confine his version of the host screen to a
window that will look like any other of the windows that he might open
to run any of his own applications.
So question 2) is then this: Does the remote computer still control his
affairs and so can give benign neglect to the turbullent mind of the
host, as reflected in his messy window?
3) Assume now that the host opens an application in his deskstop which
does not fill his screen,so as to be free to do other things.
The change in the looks of the screen is detected by vnc which dutifully
reflects the opening of the application in the remote machine,
presumably in a subwindow of the window containing the reflected
deskstop of the host, a subwindow that is not subject to manipulations
because it is not under the control of the remote computer.
Or is it? Who is really in control here? do we have a static situation
that only appears dynamic in that any changes in the host screen are
reflected in the remote machine,yes, but with the control still in the
hands of the host?
Or can the remote machine take over the whole of the host, with the
power of deciding what applications the host machine should open?
Or can the desirable situation of having BOTH open applications at the
host computer, while leaving each free to do other things?
Notice that even if all this is possible, there are still many other
questions:
a) There is a severe lack of symmetry in this scenario.
It is only the host machine screen that is reflected at the remote
machine, and not viceversa.
When the host user wants to open another aplication such as a file that
he had created earlier containig adult contents, the remote user will
automatically, and presumably willy-nilly, get an education, since the
whole of the host's desktop is what he always sees,containing many
subwindows with their respective applications
And he can, presumably, even perfect his education by opening another
file of his own, without this fact being known to the host!
Furthermore, if both could open applications at the host machine, as
speculated above, the situation would be better but it would still lack
symmetry.
I would like you gurus out there to tell me if the dream that follows is
at all possible, without getting too geeky.
(I know that that is not in your nature but work at it, for the sake of
the sanity of mortals. You will make new friends and influence people).
b) We could now speculate about what sense would it make, in an attempt
at symmetry, to simultaneously have the remote machine become a server
with the current host becoming the remote machine with respect to the
"ex remote" which would become also a host? This would, in principle,
restore a modicum of symmetry but it seems crazy, since it would require
at the very least and among other complications, that there be TWO
windows in each machine to
keep straight whose deskstop is whom's
b) The following is a more general and exciting dream that this
writer can really use if it were possible:
Please do not laugh too loud at my ignorance and collectively see how
far we can all go together to make this possible by using the vnc tools
already available. This property can be used by many, and it may be
already prevalent, for all I know.
Suppose two people want to write a poem together but they want to do it
by writing a single line or at most a few lines alternating between each
other, and drawing inspiration from what each just wrote, to configure
what to write next.
A good analogy is a jazz improvisation session in which each musician
adds to what the previous one did, in a tightly coordinated manner.
To make this possible the following would be necessary, as one
alternative:
The host opens a Word document and writes the first line, or using the
Clipboard incorporates into it what he wrote into a file the night
before, when he felt inspired to poetry by that superb TV show
Smackdown.
The remote guy now reads the line and types in his/her two cents worth.
Look at the enormous implications of this seemingly innocent move!
The situation is far from static, even when it is not symmetric. We are
actually expecting to both be able to type into the same document even
when the remote has taken over the host and presumably the host has been
rendered powerless to type into the Word Window, or the other way around
if the remote has opened Word in his machine.
If this business of typing lines by both participants were possible,one
way or another, one could collaborate in many other ways, like making a
cartoon together using Adobe Illustrator, which would be more
interesting than simple text.
What I have in mind for myself is a close collaboration with others in
writing a scientific program in C, with many people typing in statements
that can be reviewed on the fly by all participants and comments added
to the code by those that want to record the purpose of each coding move
so as not to forget what happened.
This would be the ultimate in collaboration, particularly if a phone
line is used in parallel to instantly have a conference call if there
are more than two participant or just to talk to a single remote, all
without having to waste time typing some stupic remark by one
participant or fend questions that make the parties loose focus.
Of course,this whole thing would only be done occasionally when the
specifications for the coding of the part of the code being discussed
have already been settled and have been mulled over earlier by the
conferees, to make the session productive.
This is all I wanted to say. Have mercy on an idiot and see what can be
done
Hector
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