Question regarding X windows client-server implementation

[Mark Jayson Alvarez]

Good day!
  Something is bothering me for so long regarding the
X windows client-server architecture. 

 First of all, I know that X server(eg; xorg) manages
my monitor, keyboard, mouse and video card. And also,
the clients are those applications that I run (eg,
kde, mozilla).

  Since I ran them both(xserver,x clients) on only one
pc(my workstation), that would be very simple and fine
for me. 

  But then I'm confused by the fact that I can let my
x clients connect to a remote x server,(eg, on a LAN).


How can that be?
 For example, I'm looking at my monitor right now..
And then there is this xorg installed on another pc
beside me. Now what I'm thinking is that the xorg
installed on another pc, knows the specs of my monitor
and graphics card and then I will authenticate my self
to it remotely.. then what? the x server will manage
my monitor and keyboard inputs remotely??? 

  And here's another scenario which I'm thinking of..
I have a workstation but its mouse, keyboard and
monitor is connected to a remote machine running x
server via a very very long monitor and keyboard
cable(hmm.. haven't seen anything that long). Aaaah! I
really can't get it.. Could you enlighten me please.
The handbook lacks this details. I'm thinking perhaps
it's because that section in the handbook is for a
typical user with standalone workstation and not for
an implementation of x window client-server on a
network. I just wanted to try this setup and many
other interesting things in FreeBSD with my
officemate. I hope you could help me.

Thanks a lot and have a nice day!







__ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
Check out the new Yahoo! Front Page. 
www.yahoo.com 
 

___
[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: Question regarding X windows client-server implementation

[Danny MacMillan]

On Wed, Nov 10, 2004 at 09:10:57PM -0700, Mark Jayson Alvarez wrote:

[...]

   But then I'm confused by the fact that I can let my
 x clients connect to a remote x server,(eg, on a LAN).
 
 How can that be?
  For example, I'm looking at my monitor right now..
 And then there is this xorg installed on another pc
 beside me. Now what I'm thinking is that the xorg
 installed on another pc, knows the specs of my monitor
 and graphics card and then I will authenticate my self
 to it remotely.. then what? the x server will manage
 my monitor and keyboard inputs remotely??? 

I'm no X expert, but this is how it seems to me:

A server is just a piece of code that does something when
another piece of code (a client) asks it to.  So your X
server, which knows all about your hardware, sits there
waiting for the X client to ask it to do something.  Like
draw a square or print the letter 'X' or tell me
what key was just pressed.  In the case of X the client
and server can be separated by a network, in which case
these requests and corresponding response data have to
travel down the wire.  The nomenclature is a bit
confusing at first because we're used to thinking of the
client code being closest to the human and server code
as being farthest away (at least I am).

The keyboard, mouse, and video are not remote from the
X server; they're local to the X server.  The X clients
execute on the remote box, but have their I/O sent
through a network connection to the X server.  It's not
very different conceptually from connecting to a Unix
box using an SSH client from another machine.  If I SSH
in to my home machine from work and run vi, vi is running
on my home box, but the output is displayed on my work
box and the input is collected from my work box.  The
only difference is the shift in perspective needed to
mentally reverse the 'client' and 'server' roles.

-- 
Danny
___
[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]