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)