[Bug 157354] New: reconnect to x-server - feature

[Elmar Stellnberger (AT/K)]

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=157354         
           Summary: reconnect to x-server - feature
           Product: kdelibs
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: unspecified
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: wishlist
          Priority: NOR
         Component: qt
        AssignedTo: kdelibs-bugs kde org
        ReportedBy: estellnb yahoo de


Version:           unknown (using 3.93.00 (KDE 4.0 Beta2), compiled sources)
Compiler:          gcc
OS:                Linux (i686) release 2.6.22.16-0.2-default

It is a major advantage of X-Server based GUI applications that it is possible to run and display singleton applications on different machines efficiently, be it for the purpose of thin clienting in the LAN or even for two computers connected via an ssh tunnel by the internet.
  However this can turn out to be a drawback if the complete session is lost because of a temporary network interruption like this can be caused by WLANs or old lan-cables that slip out of the connector plug every now and then. The same problem occurs if one or both machines go into standby at a different time. KDE3 could even panic and destroy the current session because of certain display events(screen unplugging/resizing etc.) or recently apparently without any motivation during normal operation.
  A fast but insufficient approach to solve this would be for kde4-qt not to give up the network connection before the X-server would consider it to be lost. However any outage can always last longer than expected (f.e. power outage - battery supply for server running x-clients only). Moreover if a remote machine decides to go into standby (or the other way round) the local user possibly does not want to follow into standby. This means that a qt-kde4 based X-client should never quit just because the X-server becomes unavailable.
  Instead of this the client should wait until induced to reconnect to the same or even possibly a different X-Server or Display than before. To enable this a tool to approach all kde4-clients running on a particular machine would be desirable, especially for those clients which have lost their connection. Allowing to "send" a kde4-application to a different display(:0.0,:0.1) or machine by initiating an ex-ante reconnect as an alternative extension would open up a totally new perspective.
  Moving applications between displays and machines would pose a great feature and enable a host of new possibilities - new possibilities of collaboration, greatly enhanced flexibility, monitor pooling - just to mention a few. Something that is really worth to consider, even if the effort to achive this will be considerable or even intricated!