howto: make-frame-on-other-display

howto: make-frame-on-other-display

[Uwe Mayer]

Hi,

If I understand it correctly, the above command allows two users on
different machines to simultaneously edit a single buffer.
I did not get it to work, though. Can anyone help and elaborate on the setup
of the two machines, ssh connections, who issues the command, which display
to choose, etc. ?

I always recieve a "Cannot connect to X server xyz:0.0

Thanks
Uwe     

Re: howto: make-frame-on-other-display

[Stefan Monnier]

> If I understand it correctly, the above command allows two users on
> different machines to simultaneously edit a single buffer.

Note that it doesn't do a perfect job of it.  E.g. if one user hits M-x, the
other is temporarily "interrupted".  Also you have to trust the other user
since having access to one of your Emacs frames means he can read/write all
your files.

I.e. in most cases it's not a good solution.  You may want to try
revision-control-systems instead (if the "simultaneous" doesn't have to be
that fine grained).  IIRC there was also an elisp package that kept
a bi-directional pipe between two Emacsen to pass update info back and forth
to keep two buffers in sync on-the-fly, but I can't remember its name.

> I always recieve a "Cannot connect to X server xyz:0.0

The other user has to give you a copy of his Xauthority cookie (which means
he has to trust you as well since you can then also wreak havoc on his
account, tho not quite as straightforwardly as she can with your Emacs
frame).  See man `xauth'.


        Stefan