[9fans] suggestion: synergy client for plan 9

["Russ Cox" <rsc@swtch.com>]

http://synergy2.sf.net/

I am writing this email using the keyboard and
mouse attached to my desktop computer, but
the input is going into programs running on my
laptop (and displaying on my laptop screen).

Synergy makes this possible: you set it up on
multiple computers, then you sit at one computer
and use that keyboard/mouse, and if you move the
mouse off the side of the screen, it moves onto the
other screen.  Keystrokes are redirected to whichever
machine currently has the mouse cursor.

It runs on Linux, OS X, and Windows.  I am using it
as a cheesy way to get two screens -- one for real
work and one for distractions like email -- but it would
be just as useful for using multiple computers with
different operating systems on them.

Just for fun I connected two Linux machines, a Windows
machine, and two OS X machines all in a row and waved
the mouse across all the screens.  It really works.

The software is a large pile of C++, but it should
be easy to write a client from scratch (perhaps
even a server, though that would be unnecessary).
The protocol is fairly simple and documented in one file
as simple format strings like "MOUS%i%i".  It should
be easy to parse and speak.

Then Plan 9 systems could play along too.

Russ