🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1g9tdiINNirq@corax.udac.uu.se>, tomasc@ida.csd.uu.se (Tomas Carlsson) writes:
|> I am currently writing a paper on sharing parts of a workspace
|> between several users. In some cases the word 'sharing' means
|> "beeing able to see" rather than "beeing able to use" someone
|> else's window (or whatever).

We have a program called XT-Confer which provides an environment for writing CSCW
applications under X-Windows. The program is the "glue" that binds it together,
and it provides an API and data structures to enable "tools" to be written.
It currently supports 10 tools, including text conferencing, shared editing, 
shared sketch-tool, shared shell, vote tool, shared calendar, and finally a 
"watcher" tool which enables arbitrary X-WIndows to be watched and "shared" with
the other "delegates" in the "conference". All of the tools apart from the watcher
are fully interactive, and support multiple users of a single tool. For example,
the edit tool enables different users to have their own insertion points into a
document.
It supports floor control, as a layer above the tools provided by the core 
program. Tools are just notified when the floor changes. Floor can be either open 
or closed. Closed floor is when one user has control of the floor. Floor Control
is on a per-tool-basis.
Sharing is automatic, but the watcher tool is active (you choose what to share).

It supports different views on a tool, for example when the floor is closed to
you, many of the buttons on the tool will be greyed out. As another example, the
text conferencing tool has a "private" coomposition area for each user, and a
shared speech area.

See the Proceedings of the 1992 European X Users Group Conference for a paper
written by myself about XT-Confer. Also, contact support@xtel.co.uk for info
about availability of  XT-Confer, or contact me.

Neil Cook.
n.cook@xtel.co.uk

or

nlc@cs.nott.ac.uk