NAME

       xkibitz - allow multiple people to interact in an xterm

SYNOPSIS

       xkibitz [ xkibitz-args ] [ program program-args...  ]

INTRODUCTION

       xkibitz  allows users in separate xterms to share one shell (or any program that runs in an xterm).  Uses
       include:

              •   A novice user can ask an expert user for help.  Using xkibitz, the expert  can  see  what  the
                  user is doing, and offer advice or show how to do it right.

              •   By  running  xkibitz  and  then  starting  a  full-screen  editor,  people  may  carry  out  a
                  conversation, retaining the ability to scroll backwards, save the entire conversation, or even
                  edit it while in progress.

              •   People  can  team  up on games, document editing, or other cooperative tasks where each person
                  has strengths and weaknesses that complement one another.

              •   If you want to have a large number of people do an on-line code walk-through, you can sit  two
                  in  front  of each workstation, and then connect them all together while you everyone looks at
                  code together in the editor.

USAGE

       To start xkibitz, one user (the master) runs xkibitz with no arguments.

       xkibitz starts a new shell (or another program, if given on the command line).   The  user  can  interact
       normally  with the shell, or upon entering an escape (described when xkibitz starts) can add users to the
       interaction.

       To add users, enter "+ display" where display is the X display name.   If  there  is  no  ":X.Y"  in  the
       display  name,  ":0.0"  is  assumed.   The master user must have permission to access each display.  Each
       display is assigned a tag - a small integer which can be used to reference the display.

       To show the current tags and displays, enter "=".

       To drop a display, enter "- tag" where tag is the display's tag according to the "=" command.

       To return to the shared shell, enter "return".  Then the keystrokes of all users become the input of  the
       shell.  Similarly, all users receive the output from the shell.

       To  terminate  xkibitz it suffices to terminate the shell itself.  For example, if any user types ^D (and
       the shell accepts this to be EOF), the shell terminates followed by xkibitz.

       Normally, all characters are passed uninterpreted.  However,  in  the  escape  dialogue  the  user  talks
       directly  to  the  xkibitz  interpreter.   Any Expect(1) or Tcl(3) commands may also be given.  Also, job
       control may be used while in the interpreter, to, for example, suspend or restart xkibitz.

       Various processes can produce various effects.  For example, you can emulate a multi-way write(1) session
       with the command:

            xkibitz sleep 1000000

ARGUMENTS

       xkibitz understands a few special arguments which should appear before the program name (if given).  Each
       argument should be separated by whitespace.  If the arguments themselves takes  arguments,  these  should
       also be separated by whitespace.

       -escape sets the escape character.  The default escape character is ^].

       -display  adds  a display much like the "+" command.  Multiple -display flags can be given.  For example,
       to start up xkibitz with three additional displays:

            xkibitz -display mercury -display fox -display dragon:1.0

CAVEATS

       Due to limitations in both X and UNIX, resize propagation is weak.

       When the master user resizes the xterm, all the  other  xterms  are  logically  resized.   Unfortunately,
       xkibitz cannot force the physical xterm size to correspond with the logical xterm sizes.

       The  other users are free to resize their xterm but their sizes are not propagated.  The master can check
       the logical sizes with the "=" command.

       Deducing the window size is a non-portable operation.  The code is known to work for recent  versions  of
       SunOS, AIX, Unicos, and HPUX.  Send back mods if you add support for anything else.

ENVIRONMENT

       The  environment  variable  SHELL is used to determine and start a shell, if no other program is given on
       the command line.

       If the environment variable DISPLAY is defined, its value is used for the display  name  of  the  xkibitz
       master (the display with tag number 0). Otherwise this name remains empty.

       Additional  arguments  may  be  passed to new xterms through the environment variable XKIBITZ_XTERM_ARGS.
       For example, to create xterms with a scrollbar and a green pointer cursor:

            XKIBITZ_XTERM_ARGS="-sb -ms green"
            export XKIBITZ_XTERM_ARGS

       (this is for the Bourne shell - use whatever syntax is appropriate for your favorite shell).  Any  option
       can  be  given  that  is valid for the xterm command, with the exception of -display, -geometry and -S as
       those are set by xkibitz.

SEE ALSO

       Tcl(3), libexpect(3) kibitz(1)
       "Exploring Expect: A Tcl-Based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs" by Don  Libes,  O'Reilly  and
       Associates, January 1995.
       "kibitz  -  Connecting  Multiple  Interactive  Programs  Together",  by  Don Libes, Software - Practice &
       Experience, John Wiley & Sons, West Sussex, England, Vol. 23, No. 5, May, 1993.

AUTHOR

       Don Libes, National Institute of Standards and Technology

                                                 06 October 1994                                      XKIBITZ(1)