Xvnc and Cygwin32

Edward Avis ()
Mon, 16 Mar 1998 21:47:07 -0000

This is a message I'm cross-posting to two mailing lists, for two very cool
products, VNC and Cygwin32. It's about creating a free X server for
Windows.

For those that don't know, VNC is a remote-access package for Windows and
X. It uses a simple protocol to send keystrokes and mouse clicks to the
server, and send graphics back the other way. It comes in two parts, the
VNC server (receives input and sends graphics) and the VNC viewer (receives
graphics from the VNC server and displays them to the user). There is a
version of the VNC server which runs on Unix, and acts like a normal X
server to X clients. But instead of drawing on the screen, it sends VNC
protocol to one or more remote VNC viewers. (There is here the problem of
differing meanings of "server" and "client" on X. I'll say "X server",
"VNC viewer", "X client", "VNC server (for X or for Windows)".) Similarly
there is a VNC server for Windows which intercepts / polls the display and
sends it to one or more VNC viewers. There are VNC viewers for X, Windows,
and Java (so you can view your apps in a Web browser, similar to SCO's
Tarantella). It is free software (GPL).

VNC:

For those that don't know, Cygwin32 is a Unix/POSIX emulation environment
for Win32. The core of it is a DLL that provides a Unix API on top of
Windows, and versions of the GNU binutils that can generate Windows PE
exes. It also comes with ports of bash, fileutils, textutils, make, etc.
 You can port many Unix applications to Windows without changing much if
any code. It is free software (mostly under the GPL).

Cygwin32:

The point is, it should be possible to port Xvnc, the VNC server for X, to
Cygwin32. Then in combination with the VNC viewer for Windows, we would
have a free X server for Windows. I know I'm not the only person who
thinks this would be a good idea - but I'm no expert on X, Cygwin32, or
VNC. I hope there are other people out there who would be willing to have
a go, since many would like a free Windows-based X server.

(Myself, I've done the opposite port - ported the VNC viewer for X to
Cygwin32 - but I'm a bit stumped about the server.)

--
Ed Avis

This archive was generated by on Wed Feb 03 1999 - 15:32:59 GMT