SharedX is a set of extensions to the

X Window System The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X originated as part of Project Athena at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984. The X protocol has been at ...

that was developed at HP in the mid to late 1980s. It enables X servers to "share" individual

X window The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X originated as part of Project Athena at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984. The X protocol has been a ...

s or an entire desktop, thus allowing users at multiple

workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or computational science, scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating syste ...

s to use standard applications to collaborate in

real-time Real-time, realtime, or real time may refer to: Computing * Real-time computing, hardware and software systems subject to a specified time constraint * Real-time clock, a computer clock that keeps track of the current time * Real-time Control Syst ...

in an

network environment, similar to

desktop sharing Desktop sharing is a common name for technologies and products that allow remote access and remote collaboration on a person's computer desktop through a graphical terminal emulator. The most common two scenarios for desktop sharing are: * Remote ...

, but for only a single window.

System

A decade later, this capability would be termed "

", with VNC being a major player. One difference between VNC and SharedX is that SharedX allows fine-grained sharing of any

or group of

s among any number of users, while VNC only allows sharing of the entire desktop. SharedX was conceived by Philip Gust at

HP Labs HP Labs is the exploratory and advanced research group for HP Inc. HP Labs' headquarters is in Palo Alto, California and the group has research and development facilities in Bristol, UK. The development of programmable desktop calculators, ink ...

, where he developed several implementations between 1986 and 1987. It was first presented and demonstrated at the 2nd Annual X Technical Conference. A proxy server version based on

X11 The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X originated as part of Project Athena at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984. The X protocol has been at ...

protocol extensions was subsequently developed by Philip Gust and his team at

, including Dan Garfinkel, Steve Lowder, and Mike Lemon. This version was presented and demonstrated at the 3rd Annual X Technical Conference. In addition to window sharing, this version of SharedX also provided extensible "floor control" policies to mediate multi-user interaction, and meeting tools such as virtual meeting rooms, avatars, "telepointers" and voting. Functions such as calendaring, note taking, and "whiteboarding" were provided by sharing standard desktop applications. An experimental video sharing and teleconferencing system was also developed by Darren Leigh, an MIT intern working with the team. The SharedX technology subsequently transferred to a product division, where it was incorporated into HP's

X Window The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X originated as part of Project Athena at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984. The X protocol has been a ...

server that is supplied in versions of

HP-UX HP-UX (from "Hewlett Packard Unix") is a proprietary software, proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise; current versions support HPE Integrity Servers, based on Intel's Itanium architect ...

. An article on SharedX later appeared in the

Hewlett-Packard Journal ''Hewlett-Packard Journal'' () was a magazine published by Hewlett-Packard (HP) between 1949–1998. The first issue appeared in September 1949. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a char ...

A number of subsequent research projects and publications have built on or cited SharedX.Philip Gust, “Multi-User Interfaces for Extended Group Collaboration”, 1989 IFIP Groupware Technology Workshop, Palo Alto California, August 1989.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharedx X Window programs