7   Application examples

7.1 Multi-headed workstation
      7.1.1 Normal arrangement
      7.1.2 One or more than two screens
      7.1.3 Special arrangement
      7.1.4 Screens of different size
      7.1.5 Combining and separating
7.2 Virtual window manager

The following sections show some typical application examples with X-BIG-X.

Instead of the xbigx command line only the configuration statements are shown. These statements may be specified on the command line or in a configuration file (6.5 Configuration file).

The environment variables $XBIGX_HOME and $XBIGX_ETC should be set appropriately or substituted in the examples (2.2 Installation directories). Please follow the notes about X Window server configuration (5 Configuration of the X Window server) and about integration (4 Integration).

7.1   Multi-headed workstation

7.1.1   Normal arrangement

The X-BIG-X product is often used to combine the screens of a dual-headed workstation to a contiguous display area. The default values of all configuration parameters reflect this arrangement. You have to specify only the command for starting the X Window server (6.7 X Window server), like in:

serverCommand /usr/bin/X11/X :1 

7.1.2   One or more than two screens

If a configuration contains more than two or even only one screen, all screens must be specified explicitly (6.12 Screen):

screen left display :1.0
screen center display :1.1
screen right display :1.2
serverCommand /usr/bin/X11/X :1 

or shorter:

screen :1.0
screen :1.1
screen :1.2
serverCommand /usr/bin/X11/X :1 

7.1.3   Special arrangement

If the first monitor is arranged on the right side of the second one, you may change the correspondence between screen and X Window server connection (6.12 Screen):

screen left display :1.1
screen right display :1.0
serverCommand /usr/bin/X11/X :1 

or shorter:

screen :1.1
screen :1.0
serverCommand /usr/bin/X11/X :1 

Alternatively, you may specify the correct arrangement of the screens (6.12.2 Position of a screen), which is also necessary in the case of non-horizontal arrangements:

screen :1.0 direction right relativeTo :1.1
screen :1.1 direction none
serverCommand /usr/bin/X11/X :1 

or:

screen :1.0 direction right relativeTo :1.1
screen :1.1 absoluteX 0
serverCommand /usr/bin/X11/X :1 

7.1.4   Screens of different size

If the monitors of a horizontal arrangement are not equally sized (measured in pixels), then an area at the bottom border of the meta screen, which always comprises all associated screens, is not displayed. Often this area contains important user interface components like icons or the CDE control panel. The X-BIG-X proxy offers several solutions to this problem.

The following configuration clips the display area on the bigger monitor and shifts it to the center (6.12.4 Dimensions of a screen). The screen's border width is configured rather large (6.12.5 Border width of a screen) so that the unused area of the monitor is displayed in black color. The metaScreen configuration statement is not really necessary here, but shows the default size of the meta screen:

metaScreen .0
    width 2300 height 766                       # (1022+1278)×766
screen small display :1.0                       # 1024×768
screen big display :1.1                         # 1280×1024
    displayHeight 766 displayY ((1022-766)/2)
    borderWidth 9999
serverCommand /usr/bin/X11/X :1 

Thus, the height of the meta screen is reduced. If this is not acceptable, you may configure the screen on the smaller monitor to pan automatically in vertical orientation with movements of the pointer (6.12.3 Dynamic position of a screen):

metaScreen .0
    width 2300 height 1022                      # (1022+1278)×1022
screen small display :1.0                       # 1024×768
    followPointerY 9999 followPointerMode jump  # one step only
screen big display :1.1                         # 1280×1024
serverCommand /usr/bin/X11/X :1 

The related product X-META-X with the VARIO option allows to adjust different screen sizes exactly by arbitrarily scaling the screen contents.

7.1.5   Combining and separating

The X-BIG-X proxy combines multiple screens to contiguous display areas but may also provide multiple separate virtual meta screens. This is used if there is need for a large display area but several functionalities have to be separated. The following configuration, for instance, is used on the client workstations of a stock trading system:

metaScreen double
    screen left display :1.0
    screen center display :1.1
metaScreen single
    screen right display :1.2
serverCommand /usr/bin/X11/X :1 

The configuration defines two meta screens. The left one (display name :0.0) is used for the trading system's user interface, which needs a double wide screen. The second meta screen (display name :0.1) is used for displaying on-line news.

7.2   Virtual window manager

A "virtual" window manager displays on the screen only a part of an arbitrary large display area. The visible part is moved over the virtual display area using hot keys or pointer motion.

X-BIG-X also provides this feature (6.12.3 Dynamic position of a screen). However, since the X-BIG-X proxy is not a window manager, every window manager can be combined with X-BIG-X and thus can be enhanced by the capability of a virtual display area.

The following configuration defines a two-dimensional double-sized meta screen (6.11.2 Dimensions of a meta screen) and a screen, which can be moved over the virtual display area in three steps in both dimensions (6.12.3 Dynamic position of a screen):

set width (1280-2)
set height (1024-2)
metaScreen .0
    width (2*$width) height (2*$height)
screen view display :1.0
    followPointerX ($width/2) followPointerY ($height/2)
    followPointerRestrict control
serverCommand /usr/bin/X11/X :1 

Using the related product X-META-X one can configure an additional navigation window, which scales down the whole virtual display area.All X Window clients including the window manager can be controlled through the navigation window.