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)