netghost - View PostScript documents using ghostscript supporting remote control and pointer unit

SYNOPSIS

netghost [filename]
or
netghost [-sender|receiver] [-address inetaddr] [-port portnumber] [-ttl hopcount] [-connection_ID uniqid] [-interval sec] [filename]

DESCRIPTION

The netghost program is an enhanced version of the ghostview program which supports remote control and a pointer unit to point within the text area. Normally one instance of the program should act as a sender which transmits event driven and periodically certain status informations. If a listing instance receives such status packet it will change its state according to the values in the status packet. This enables the remote listeners of a lecture to follow the sequence of slides and to see the highlighted spots.

MAIN WINDOW

A pointer support has been added into the main viewport. The Pointer is positioned using the right mouse button. Pressing the right mouse button a second time will hide the pointer. The Pointer shape, the Pointer color, and the mouse button which triggers the pointer can be set by resources.

POPUP WINDOWS

To control the application there is a new dialog window netpopup. The following parameters can be set using this dialog:

Address Here the IP-Address to send to or receive from is set. In most of the cases this should be a multicast address but a unicast address is also possible.

Port Here the Port to send to or receive from can be choosen.

TTL The TTL value given here is only valid for sending in a multicast group. It determines the range of transmission.

ID Should be an unique integer number. This shall prevent the application to act on received pakets from other session on the same address and port.
.IP "Sender" "or" "Receiver"
This two buttons are mutually exclusive. You can choose the mode of your application by clicking one times on the appropriate button. Selecting the button a second time cancels the selection. If none of this two buttons is selected the application acts like the normal ghostviewprogram.

MENUS

There is one additional menu entry "Network" in the Filemenu. Selecting this entry will popup the netdialogwindow.

APPLICATION RESOURCES

The following additional resources can be set.

addressPrompt (class AddressPrompt)
Sets the prompt used to ask for the IP-address.

portPrompt (class portPrompt)
Sets the prompt used to ask for the port number.

ttlPrompt (class TtlPrompt)
Sets the prompt used to ask for the ttl value.

connection_IDPrompt (class Connection_IDPrompt)
Sets the prompt used to ask for the unique connection identifier.

address (class Address)
Sets the default IP-address

port (class Port) Sets the default port number

ttl (class Ttl) Sets the default ttl value

connection_ID (class Connection_ID)
Sets the default connection identifier

interval (class Interval)
Sets the default repeating interval of status packet in seconds

GHOSTVIEW WIDGET RESOURCES

Some additional resources in the Ghostview widget may be set by the user.

pointershape (class Pointershape)
This enables the user to choose the shape of its pointer unit. It must be a valid XWindows bitmap file.

pointercolor (class Pointercolor)
Sets the color of the pointer unit.

GHOSTVIEW WIDGET ACTIONS

togglepointer(unused)
One additional action is introduced to show and hide the pointer. The default is to toggle the pointer state with the right mouse button. The pointer is centered around the "haircross" mouse pointer.

LIMITATIONS

The status packets are transmitted using unreliable udp packets. Some packets may be lost this way. That is the reason why we repeat the packets periodically. We do not check if all users see the same postscript document. To obtain the file you have to use some kind of file transfer.

AUTHOR

Stefan Bodenstein bodenst@ft.ee.tu-berlin.de Andreas Koepsel koepsel@ft.ee.tu-berlin.de

BUGS

If you find a bug, please send a bug report to the authors.

SEE ALSO

A detailed explanation of the ghostview program can be found in the ghostview manpage.

Last Modified: 05:05pm MET, January 13, 1998