From: "Luis G. Gómez" <lgomez@...>
Date: 2004-12-30T04:50:56+09:00
Subject: Distributed application

Hello all,

It's my first time posting to this ML so this may be out of place...

I'm working on an idea for an application that, if conceived, would be 
distributed as part of a system composed of a server and x number of 
terminals. This server would be dedicated to serving an application in 
the form of a GUI  that I'd like to develop using Ruby exclusively.

The server would be Linux but the terminals are likely to be running 
windows (although it'd be great if the terminal's platform became 
irrelevant).

Now, the idea is to have users (terminals) be recognized by the server 
so that the application can be run from it. That way additional 
terminals could be added to the LAN that would automatically "see" th 
application. I'd like to be able to avoid installing anything on the 
terminal (except maybe a shortcut or something similar). The user would 
then doubble click the apps shortcut and launch the application from the 
server. The application will, among other, allow for the manipulation of 
images and documents being served by the app server. Nothing is stored 
locally.

My question is kind of broad. I'd like to know if anyone has worked on 
similar distributed apps or if there are resources available online that 
could guide me in the "right" direction. I've never done distributed 
GUIs and don't even know if it's possible at this point using Ruby. 
Also, I'm not clear about Ruby's image manipulation capabilities.

Thanks a lot!!

LG