Popup window version of rwall?

[Skip Montanaro]

Wnl wondered what Sun escape sequences inside rwall messages would do to
non-Sun devices. I suspect the problems will be minimal.

Instead of the rwall user having to stick that stuff in though, I think
rwalld should be modified to realize what type of environment is being run
on each login session to which it will write messages. (I don't presume to
know how it would find this information out. I suspect someone with the
appropriate Sun system expertise could solve the problem.) The four (Sun)
environments I see as important to support are Suntools, X, NeWS, and
teletypes or CRTs. In the first three cases, rwalld should fork
appropriate client applications to create a pop-up window containing the
message. In the fourth case it could perform the write itself.

Is this bizarre, or what?

Skip Montanaro (montanaro at sprite.steinmetz.ge.com, montanaro at ge-crd.arpa)