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> The idea of running graphical code on multiple machines, then displaying the results locally What does this mean? It's like a remote desktop or something?

by skohan 6y ago

PeterisP 6y ago
"Remote app" instead of remote desktop would be a better analogy. You run code on multiple machines (which might not even have any graphics devices or the concept of a "desktop" there) where each program might display graphical results in windows on your machine.
convolvatron 6y ago
yes, except its up a layer. remote desktop moves pixels, and X is a protocol that distributes the rendering api. so you start up your app, and query what kind of display you're connected to - there is all kind of cruft about color models and bitplane depths. choose fonts, register for events (mouse, resize, etc), draw your elements and wait for the user to interact with you. it makes absolute sense in the context of the early 90s 'lets make this a network api' - and almost none from a modern perspective as bloated as the browser model is, i think shipping code to run on the users machine is a much more powerful model... if you can keep it small and deal with the security issues.
exikyut 6y ago
X is a native remote desktop system. It just happens that we generally all run our apps on the same machine as where X runs, nowadays. Sadly playing around and learning how it works is trickier than it used to be now that X doesn't listen over TCP by default (...because the protocol is unencrypted and unauthenticated... can't argue there), but google "SSH X forwarding" for a reasonable startpoint that's still fairly universally supported (you can even get X servers for Windows that work with PuTTY, and it all works natively on Linux and macOS).
- exikyut 6y ago
  Must resist urge to comment on HN at $ZZZ-o-clock in the morning... pedantic clarification, nowadays X uses MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE authentication generally, but can be configured to do others (I think it can use Kerberos?). I don't think the protocol is encrypted in any circumstances though.

> The idea of running graphical code on multiple machines, then displaying the results locally What does this mean? It's like a remote desktop or something?

by skohan 6y ago

> The idea of running graphical code on multiple machines, then displaying the results locally What does this mean? It's like a remote desktop or something?

PeterisP 6y ago

"Remote app" instead of remote desktop would be a better analogy. You run code on multiple machines (which might not even have any graphics devices or the concept of a "desktop" there) where each program might display graphical results in windows on your machine.

convolvatron 6y ago

yes, except its up a layer. remote desktop moves pixels, and X is a protocol that distributes the rendering api. so you start up your app, and query what kind of display you're connected to - there is all kind of cruft about color models and bitplane depths. choose fonts, register for events (mouse, resize, etc), draw your elements and wait for the user to interact with you. it makes absolute sense in the context of the early 90s 'lets make this a network api' - and almost none from a modern perspective as bloated as the browser model is, i think shipping code to run on the users machine is a much more powerful model... if you can keep it small and deal with the security issues.

exikyut 6y ago

X is a native remote desktop system. It just happens that we generally all run our apps on the same machine as where X runs, nowadays. Sadly playing around and learning how it works is trickier than it used to be now that X doesn't listen over TCP by default (...because the protocol is unencrypted and unauthenticated... can't argue there), but google "SSH X forwarding" for a reasonable startpoint that's still fairly universally supported (you can even get X servers for Windows that work with PuTTY, and it all works natively on Linux and macOS).

exikyut 6y ago
Must resist urge to comment on HN at $ZZZ-o-clock in the morning... pedantic clarification, nowadays X uses MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE authentication generally, but can be configured to do others (I think it can use Kerberos?). I don't think the protocol is encrypted in any circumstances though.