xmove and xpra are the alternatives to xscreen (followup to What is the status of xscreen? Will its development ever be resumed?)
A year ago, Jason Spiro jasonspiro4 at gmail.com wrote: Hi Ori and xorg list members, Ori, you told me last year about the project you were working on: xscreen, a program similar in functionality to Gnu Screen, only for X applications [1], done for Google Summer of Code. I am interested in running Xscreen: I would like to try using it to prevent my applications from aborting when I kill X (e.g. by accident[2].) I also might like to try using it to share single applications, not entire Xorg displays, between me and others. Ori, gitweb shows that you checked in lots of code to the orib-soc-2006 branch of xorg [3], but that it was not merged into HEAD. Did you manage to finish implementing xscreen? If not, what was finished, what was not, and what would need to be done to get xscreen working? Xorg people: Do you think it's likely that you will resume development of xscreen in the future, either by yourself or by finding more Summer of Code students to work on it? ( I would not volunteer though. ) Or is VNC good enough that it wouldn't be worth it to develop xscreen further? Regards, Jason Spiro [1] http://code.google.com/soc/2006/xorg/appinfo.html?csaid=73A89F18E7770493 [2] Btw, Ctrl+Alt+Backspace is a pet peeve of mine. See my feature request https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10507 - Ctrl-Alt-Backspace should request confirmation before killing Xorg. [3] http://gitweb.freedesktop.org/?p=xorg/xserver.git;a=shortlog;h=orib-soc-2006 There are two alternatives to xscreen. - xmove (unmaintained since 1997; see http://wikipedia.org/wiki/xmove for more info on what xmove does) - xpra But xscreen is not a good choice, because it isn't done. I spoke with Ori on MSN Messenger this April. He told me (I have edited his words slightly): I don't think Xscreen will even compile. At the end of the summer I was working on Xscreen, a whole bunch of APIs it was depending on changed: both XCB's API and Xorg internals. And in general, I was inexperienced and clueless at the time: Xscreen still needs major cleanups. There are lots of issues with global resources, etc. that I'm not even sure how to approach now today. It's harder to write a _good_ X proxy than it looks. I'll make an announcement if I ever find time to pick it up again. -Jason ___ xorg mailing list xorg@lists.freedesktop.org http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg
Poll: Should Xorg change from using Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to something harder for users to press by accident?
Problem: Many[1] users have killed X by accident.[2] Solution idea: Make it harder to kill X by accident. E.g. you could change the key sequence users must press. * Maybe require Control+Alt+Backspace then Control-Alt-Y.[3] * Or require Control+K+X pressed simultaneously. What do you think? Should Xorg change this key sequence? Please vote yes or no. You can add comments too. If you reply only to me by private mail, I will eventually summarize your reply to the list. Regards, -Jason ^ [1]. See http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10510 then scroll down to the == Example evidence == section. Or see http://www.google.com/search?q=accidentally+hit+%7C+press+%7C+hitting+%7C+pressing+control+%7C+ctrl+alt+backspace+x%7Cxorg ^ [2]. I filed a bug about this last year but it's still untriaged. So now I'm asking here. It's bug 10510 (Xorg should use a more unlikely key combination than Control-Alt-Backspace as the server zap key): http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10510 ^ [3]. After Control+Alt+Backspace, the PC speaker would beep once, the keyboard LEDs would blink a few times, and X would attempt to show a warning dialog. Thanks to Elisée Maurer at http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10510#c1 for the warning-dialog idea. ___ xorg mailing list xorg@lists.freedesktop.org http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg
Re: Poll: Should Xorg change from using Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to something harder for users to press by accident?
Igor Mozolevsky igor at hybrid-lab.co.uk writes: CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE is just the way to do it OK. That's one no vote, duly noted. Thank you for your vote. I will now respond to the rest of your comments. just because users incompetently press the combination, doesn't mean it's a bad one. I respectfully disagree. Accidental zaps often cause data loss. Data loss is always unacceptable and Xorg should do whatever it takes to prevent it. Besides, pressing that combo requires some effort, I really can't see how one could do it accidentally! Please see http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10510 then scroll down to the == Example evidence == section. Or see http://www.google.com/search?q=accidentally+hit+%7C+press+%7C+hitting+%7C+pressing+control+%7C+ctrl+alt+backspace+x%7Cxorg ___ xorg mailing list xorg@lists.freedesktop.org http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg
Re: Poll: Should Xorg change from using Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to something harder for users to press by accident?
Igor Mozolevsky igor at hybrid-lab.co.uk wrote: ... Unfortunately, there's no cure for human stupidity There's no cure, but there are workarounds. Doesn't CTRL+ALT+DELETE reboot the machine unconditionally? Not usually. It used to reboot unconditionally way back. But, fifteen years ago, when Windows 3.1 came out[1], Microsoft changed things so that Windows users must press it twice to reboot. I suspect they did so to make it harder to lose data by accident. In Linux, Ctrl-Alt-Del reboots unconditionally only in console mode. Only expert users use console mode. When X is running, on all my Linux machines, Ctrl-Alt-Del brings up a shutdown-or-reboot? dialog instead. The vast majority of Linux users run X. ^ [1]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control-Alt-Delete ; full disclosure: the Control-Alt-Delete detection feature required a 386 computer to work. ___ xorg mailing list xorg@lists.freedesktop.org http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg
Re: Poll: Should Xorg change from using Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to something harder for users to press by accident?
Corbin Simpson mostawesomedude at gmail.com writes: ... Seriously, no. Your vote has been duly noted. Zap once, learn forever. No different than anything else, really; I still believe that Xorg should make it harder to make the mistake of an accidental zap. ever heard of press Alt+F4 to make it go faster? Yes. Note, though, that Firefox now displays a confirmation dialog when you try to quit when there are multiple tabs open. That featureis a good protection against the press Alt+F4 to make it go faster jokesters. ___ xorg mailing list xorg@lists.freedesktop.org http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg
