| Background: On land I run ferret on a networked Linux computer running the Red Hat operating system, but I do it through X-windows on my networked Macintosh. I open one or more X-windows on my Mac, and run ferret within those with no problems. I can produce plots and make gifs of them using the FRAME/FORMAT=GIF command. Our group also goes to sea. There I am often the only user of the Linux computer, and I sit at its console running ferret within an X-window within the Red Hat GUI. That GUI has some nice graphical tools that I can take advantage of. Back on land, it has been pointed out to me that I could have the "look and feel" of the Red Hat GUI on my Mac if I run a VNC (virtual network computer) server on the networked Linux machine and a VNC client on the Mac. I downloaded "Chicken of the VNC" - the favored, free, Mac VNC client to my Mac - and it really does work. It's just like sitting at the Linux console with all the Red Hat GUI tools available. I can open X-windows there and run ferret. BUT there is a problem. The ferret graphical display window looks the same as ever, but I cannot capture the graphic with the FRAME/FORMAT=GIF command. Ferret just hangs without responding. Questions: Has anyone captured a graphic as a gif successfully with a VNC client? On a Mac or any other machine? Is the problem that ferret cannot capture a gif through a VNC? If so, can that be worked around? Or is it a Mac problem? Or is it a Chicken of the VNC problem? P.S. We thought it might be a backing store issue, and we've installed the latest VNC server on Red Hat. It supports X-window backing store. When I overlap a ferret graphics window with a text window and then uncover it again, the graphics window repaints, so backing store seems to be working. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Edward D. (Ned) Cokelet, Ph.D. Oceanographer NOAA/PMEL off: (206) 526-6820 7600 Sand Point Way NE fax: (206) 526-6485 Seattle, WA 98115-6349 The contents of this message are mine personally and do not necessarily reflect any position of the Government or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. |