Mechanism to control and use window events among applications in

Abstract

A new application sharing technology that enables sharing of many single-user non-modified applications between two or more workstations. It provides concurrent sharing of existing multiple applications with no change in a distributed environment. It permits real-time sharing of distributed applications based on a fundamental window hierarchical mapping and user interactions. Control is centralized but the data and program are replicated. It is event driven with agent assistance. The new event capturing capability is automatically triggered by user interactions on entering/leaving the shared window. The event capturing capability starts when the user moves the pointer into the shared windows. The event capturing ends when the user moves the pointer out of the shared windows. The new multicasting scope is defined in a shared window hierarchy data array. This global data array is dynamically created at run time on an as-needed basis. Because this mechanism only processes user input events such as mouse, keyboard or cursor movement (commands), no output graphic data transmission across the network is required. Therefore, this approach is extremely light-weight and provides secure transmission without requiring intensive encryption. Because it is not using pseudo server interception, this approach can support DHA 3-D rendering. Also, the agent can dynamically mediate resources and normalize environment differences. This permits real-time sharing of 3-D, graphic and DHA (direct hardware access) applications. DHA permits the application to bypass the windowing server to render graphics on display. Moreover, because it is extremely light-weight, high network bandwidth is not required.