SUMMARY: Two-headed AlphaStation

From: Drew Kramer <drew_at_ny.ox.com>
Date: Thu, 09 May 96 10:00:26 -0400

On Tue, 07 May 96 11:58:11 -0400 Drew Kramer <drew_at_ox.com> asked:

>Is there a way to have the X server consider the various graphics cards as a
>single large screen? In this way, windows could be dragged from one monitor to
>another, and single windows could span more than one monitor (a la MacOS).

I got several replys, I've included them here in no particular order.
It looks like the first thing I'm going to try is webbing over to

        http://www.x-software.com/Software/Xbigx

to take a peek at this product. It appears the other thing to do is wait for DU
V4.0.

Thanks again to all who replied!

-drew

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----
Jeff Downs <jwd_at_idx.com>
DU 4.0 has support for X's Panoramic Virtual Screens which will enable
multiple monitor's to appear as a larger :0.0 monitor.
----
John Schaeffer <jsch_at_conncoll.edu>
I know on Sun and Hp's with two or three monitors it works this way. 
I'm going on memory here because I don't have any systems here that 
are like that, but you wanna check /usr/lib/X11/Xscreens. Dec may do 
something different do a (man Xdec). I also remember using three 
.mwmrc's when starting X there may have been 3 .xinits as well.
----
UFPEL - CPMET <ufpelrm_at_eu.ansp.br>
You may use a virtual window manager, like fvwm to do this.
----
Jay Shen <jshen_at_emperor.kidsat.ucsd.edu>
According to Tech support from Digital, you can NOT do this.
----
Frank Oskar Frenzel <frank.frenzel_at_denet.mail.abb.com>
Try the folowing product "XbigX" from X-software
See http://www.x-software.com/home.english.html
This and the following pages provide a pretty good description of the
software.
It is a pseudo server that connects to the two (or more) screens and it
presents itself as a single screen server to the X-client.
I hope you can use it.
----
Michael Gehret <Michael.Gehret_at_x-software.com>
You might have a look at our X/bigX software.  It combines the screens
of one workstation to one or several so-called meta-screens.
X/bigX/multiServer does the same for multiple X Window servers --
workstations or X terminals.
X/bigX/dynamicServer allows to (dis-)connect X Window servers during
run-time.
X/bigX/failsafe detects the failure of one, several or all X Window
servers and disconnects them without disturbing the applications.
More info, online manual, free evaluation software from our WWW server:
	http://www.x-software.com/Software/Xbigx
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Michael Gehret
----
"Vipin Gokhale, DEC SBU, Oracle Corporation" <VGOKHALE_at_us.oracle.com>
 There's PanoramiX product (ADK) which ships with DU 4.0. This, according to 
the documentation would do what you're asking for. 
 
 - Vipin 
----
K Duffy <kevind_at_tg.nsw.gov.au>
Good question Drew.
I a few two headed Alpha Station 4/166, running Digital Unix 3.2c.
I too wanted to do what you have (a single "big screen") - which other
Unix vendors do. DEC's response was that this would violate the motif 
standard, so they didn't support it.
However, I got a third hand report of an early OSF/1 release actually 
supporting it - but could not confirm it.
DEC reckon that CDE will solve the problem, and allow you to do clever things 
like drag windows between the screens (which is what I was really interested 
in). My 3rd party software isn't yet ready for CDE (nor I am, I thinks!), so I 
haven't checked this out yet.
But given that there are plenty of cards out there for PC's that make two 
heads into one logical screen (basically one video ram - the PC thinks it's 
one screen as Windows 3.1 can't handle anything else) - it wouldn't surprise 
if you can find a PCI bus one that works on AXP's and makes it think it's got 
one screen ! Of course, such "dumb" cards are not aware of the split between 
the screens, so you couldn't do things like "snapping" a dragged window so 
that it was entirely on another screen. But this mightn't be a problem.
If you find such a card, please summarise or email me, as I'd be interested in 
details.
Kevin Duffy
----
Received on Thu May 09 1996 - 17:11:05 NZST

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