[ale] I've decided again to learn programming again

[Ron Frazier]

Hello all,

I want to thank those who've replied to this thread previously.  I'll be 
considering all those pieces of advice as my programming project 
advances, and will probably post other messages here about them.  I'm 
not quoting the whole thread here, because I want to ask some questions 
about technology setup, so I and a couple of partners can begin learning 
Java programming collaboratively.  Essentially, I and Scott Castaline 
and possibly one other person, not part of this group, whom I shall call 
Sam for now, wish to all participate in a learning experience to learn 
to program in Java.  (If there is a Sam in the group, he's not related 
to this discussion.)  At least at first, we'll be working through one of 
the Deitel and Deitel textbooks.  These have the unique advantage of 
having lots of case studies and exercises to look at.  We want to be 
able to participate in the experience together in real time, by 
collaborating over the internet.  I will be running Ubuntu 10.04, Scott 
will probably be running Fedora 15, and Sam will probably be running 
Ubuntu 11.04.

I want to enable 2 features to enable collaboration.  1) Multiparty VOIP 
voice conferencing, and 2) Multiparty screen sharing

Here's how I want this to work.  Each person will have two computers to 
use.  One machine will be their development machine, with the editor, 
compiler, IDE, and other Java development related tools.  The second 
computer will be their voip machine and viewer machine.

For item 1), Multiparty VOIP voice conferencing, I want each of the 
three people to be able to join a VOIP conference such that each one can 
wear a computer headset and each one can talk and the other two can hear 
him, just like a conference call.

For item 2), Multiparty screen sharing, it gets a bit more complicated.

Let's designate the computers for each person as follows:

Dev-Ron
Viewer-Ron

Dev-Scott
Viewer-Scott

Dev-Sam
Viewer-Sam

Each person will share their Dev screen with the other two people, in 
view only mode.  Each person will view the other two people's Dev 
screens in windows on his Viewer screen.

So, the contents of the screens would be as follows:

Dev-Ron - Ron's development environment
Viewer-Ron
      a window containing an image of Scott's Dev screen
      a window containing an image of Sam's Dev screen

Dev-Scott - Scott's development environment
Viewer-Scott
      a window containing an image of Ron's Dev screen
      a window containing an image of Sam's Dev screen

Dev-Sam - Sam's development environment
Viewer-Sam
      a window containing an image of Ron's Dev screen
      a window containing an image of Scott's Dev screen

I hope that makes any sense whatsoever.  If it works, every participant 
will be able to see whatever the other two are doing and every one will 
be able to talk to every one.  Note that I don't need pictures of the 
people, just the computer screens of their Dev systems.  Note also that 
this is different from a situation where there is one presenter, since 
every party is both a presenter and a viewer.

This needs to be free open source software, and should not require any 
fees to participate.

I'm thinking Ventrillo might work for voice, if available for Linux.  
I'm thinking that TeamViewer might work for the screen sharing.  I'm not 
sure if either can do multiparty conferencing, and I'm sure that there 
are other options.

Leave it to me to try to grab a tiger by the tail, as I'm sure this will 
be complicated.  I've done point to point remote control before, but 
nothing like this.  Any advice on how to get this working would be 
appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

Sincerely confused,

Ron


-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier

770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT c3energy.com