I need to mirror GUI console activity happening on one Macbook so that it is duplicated on a second identical Macbook.
The idea is to control an application that will run on two Macbooks simultaneously. The application is sort of a presentation with two variations in content, but identical controls. Think of it as two versions of PowerPoint presentation with some slides that are different.
I’m thinking that it may be possible to capture the keypresses and mouse events on one Mac, then use RFB protocol to send these across the network to the other Mac. I’m looking at rfbproxy and rfbplaymacro, but these are somewhat inelegant hacks, and any solution built on these will also be a bit of a hack. And of course, I’d prefer to avoid a solution that requires me to compile and perhaps debug software that hasn’t been touched in half a decade. 🙂
I could conceivably use Cliclick or xdotool (from MacPorts) to initiate console events on the “slave” Mac. But then I don’t know what I’d use to capture the events on the “master”. Or would an xdotool-based solution require that both Macs be slaves, and then use some other device as a master?
Input devices could be a presentation mouse, an Apple remote, or in a pinch, the keyboard of on of the Macbooks or even a third device.
Can you suggest tools? Or is there another strategy I haven’t thought of?
I have tried to synchronise systems like this that are NOT Macs a few years ago using rfbproxy and rfbplaymacro which you already know about. The systems were both X terminals running at the same resolution. We still had problems because of different font size settings putting application controls in different places, but the basic VNCiness of the solution seemed to work just fine.
That said, if you want to write a stand-alone application to send stuff using osascript or cliclick or xdotool, and you have a wii, you might get some joy from DarwiinRemote.