Re: ANNOUNCE: Helix Setup Tools

[kevin lyda <kevin suberic net>]

On Fri, Aug 11, 2000 at 06:31:09PM -0400, Miguel de Icaza wrote:
> Yeah, this is still possible.  And a web interface is also possible,
> this is a great chance for people to contriute ;-)

another way to contribute - remote displays.  is anyone doing the
following?

essentially i'd like to write a util for managing the .Xauthority file
for remote systems.  and then extend it to work with the gnome menu bar.
(and perhaps those little launcher icons) the idea would enable the
following scenario to happen:

	my laptop is called roo, it's where the xserver lives.
	there's a dev server at work called kinsey.  i sometimes
	    need to run admin tools there (printtool springs to mind)
	    as well as a cdwriter or grip.
	my home server inle: i might run grip there.
	my dream linux pda: piglet.  i might run some pda apps there.

initially i bring up the gnome remote client menu and detail info about
various client machines - hostname, login/pw, connection method, os.
these would help determine the connection scripts required, and there
would be advance options for secondary users (like i login as kevin
but then su to be root and run printtool), manually scripted connections,
etc.

after a host is described i can choose to detect and add it's apps
to the gnome menu.  there can be pointy-clicky ways that dump
all apps into a menu with the name of the host, etc.  but you might
also be able to do it by hand.

i bring up the gnome menu and select grip(inle), it automatically
logs into inle (prompting for a pw if i don't have it save the
password)

i plop my gnome/linux pda into it's cradle and the pda utils automatically
start the ppp connection.  i drag down to piglet->calendar and it pops
up.  i run the menu remote client redetection util on piglet and the
new version of gnome-widgets show up on my menu.

it needs to be designed so that the connection scripts are pluggable
- this should make remote apps on anything with xlibs easier to get.
and it needs to be able to xfer xauth info smoothly, set displays, etc.
app detection is easy for gnome stuff, but others?  a db of possibilities
is the best bet.  for gnome we could add a gnome-app-list util that would
spew out appname:apppath:appcatagory:appdescription (obviously this
couldn't be this simple a file - it should use xml because all files
should use xml...  sigh).  a similar util could be created for kde.
anyway something that parses /usr/share/gnome/apps .  other systems
(cde, x utils, older third part apps) would need to be entered manually
by the user (boo-hiss!) or with a db we build up.

be great for pda folks because they wouldn't need to write desktop
utils, just write up connection scripts for detecting the pda and bringing
up a ppp connection (admittedly hard but required either way) and if
they run gnome on the pda the gnome-app-list on the pda could be run by
the menu detection system on the desktop.  bang: all the pda apps
are available on the desktop with a mouse click!  (btw, think usb or
ethernet connections for the pda, not serial.  that would be silly).

anyway x has had remote display of clients for yonks, it would be nice
to make it accessible.  i just wish i had time to implement it.

kevin

-- 
kevin@suberic.net        moo
fork()'ed on 37058400                                                    moo
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