Tools for remote user-education : "Show Me" [was Re: [vox-tech] screen question ]

[ME]

Karsten M. Self said:
> on Mon, Nov 01, 2004 at 09:07:21AM -0800, Ken Bloom (kabloom at ucdavis.edu)
> wrote:
>> On Mon, 1 Nov 2004 11:53:30 -0500
>> p at dirac.org (Peter Jay Salzman) wrote:
>
> ['screen' reattaching not working]
>
>> See if you can work around the problem by using
>> $ screen -d -R
>> (both parameters at the same time)
>
> An alternative Rx is, erm, '-rx'.  That's "reattach, share".
>
> I often do this to attach (temporarially) to screen sessions I'm running
> from another box.  Which I typically to for various reasons, even when
> I'm _not_ remotely attaching to a system.

I've used the share option when educating people on how to get things
accomplished from a shell and we are both geographically distant from each
other, but online. (Older versions of screen would not allow sharing of
same "window" but newer ones do.)

If you have never used the share option before, it allows two people to
"share" a screen session; both people may type in the same session at the
same time and have the same privs as shell in the given session. You are
able to specify what users may attach to a shared screen session, and you
must start it as a shared session for others to attach, but it can be
quite excellent. (It also allows you to have multiple screen sessions
opened and attached without detatching.)

Another useful tool for educating people when they are remote is "ytalk"
which uses the ntalk/talkd protocol. With ytalk, you may spawn a shell of
your own whil chatting, and they can see in their half-screen what you are
doing. Unlike screen sharing, ytalk affords you your own shell, but has
limited terminal support, and only a half screen, but the remote user does
not have access to your shell and you do not have access to their shell.

I've used both techniques when tracking down compile problems or
explaining things to at least on other user on this list. :-)

-ME