The "loop and a half"

[Mikhail V]

>>> Have you ever worked on a slow remote session where a GUI is
>>> completely impracticable (or maybe even unavailable), and redrawing
>>> the screen is too expensive to do all the time?
>>
>> So where does the redrawing happen? The machine youre sitting on (let's
>> call it 'A') and send remote commands or retrieving text files? Or the
>> redrawing must be synced on both A and
>> the remote machine? If so, then why so?

Peter J. Holzer wrote:

> Because you want to see what you are typing. Imagine you are logged into
> a server on the other side of the world. You want to edit a file on that
> machine (for example a configuration file for the web server). You
> invoke the editor on that server.

I've never done this, but if one told me to edit a file,
my first attempt would be like:
- get read/write access to the file system
- browse it (e.g. some file browser plugin?)
- get the file to the local machine
- edit locally
- write it back to the remote machine


>> And not in a nice editor with normal fonts?
>> Am i missing something or your 'A' machine cannot use graphics?

> ... The server may not be able to
> (it's a server, why would anyone install a GUI on it?)

If I ever work on it (locally) why would I want a GUI on it?
o_O   I'm not sure if I'm getting you.
You mean probably a server which is never worked on locally?
If it has a display and a keyb, and I must do something on it, even
seldom, then certainly I want a GUI on it (not just to see
a desktop wallpaper ;).

> streaming the screen contents of a rich GUI around the world may be not
> be possible for bandwidth or delay reasons.
Sure, streaming video consumes a lot, but that is what one tries to
avoid if under limitations so streaming messages only is faster.


Mikhail