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Run 2 keyboards/2 mice on 1 computer? — Parallax Forums

Run 2 keyboards/2 mice on 1 computer?

bulkheadbulkhead Posts: 405
edited 2006-04-24 18:28 in General Discussion
Is it possible to have two people writing code on the same computer, each with his own keyboard and mouse that is indepedent of each other? I know you can plug in two mice, but they share the same icon on the screen. Is there a program I can run that allows me to have two active windows, each controlled by a mouse/keyboard pair that's independent of each other?

Comments

  • Peter VerkaikPeter Verkaik Posts: 3,956
    edited 2006-04-21 10:13
    I have not heard of such a program. However, there is this
    http://www.ncomputing.com/ncomputing/products/direct.php#a3

    regards peter
    ·
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2006-04-21 15:19
    TigerDirect used to sell such a device that plugged into the PC PCI Slot and allowed you to connected a second Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse and somehow made it appear that there were two PCs when in fact both users were sharing the resources of one.· I don't see the product listed now, but perhaps you can find one elsewhere.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
    csavage@parallax.com
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2006-04-21 15:50
    If you can wait a month, the new Propeller chip at $25 might be exactly what you want.
    It certainly will handle 1 keyboard and 1 mouse with room to spare. But please understand that each keyboard requires 300ma of power. I imagine the mouse is nearly as power hungry.

    Take a look at the Propeller Development Board with Keyboard, Mouse, Mike, Earphones, TV, Video, and still more 8 more I/Os to be exploited.

    I believe there was even some discussion of a PCI interface, too.

    The real question is do you need to have the video shared or seperate? Once you get into sharing I/O in one application, I suspect it become a question of what the software designers had intended. And I suspect most of them never considered 'sharing I/O' unless it was something like PC Remote.

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    "When all think alike, no one is thinking very much.' - Walter Lippmann (1889-1974)

    ······································································ Warm regards,····· G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse]·黃鶴 ]·in Taiwan
  • A.C. fishingA.C. fishing Posts: 262
    edited 2006-04-21 23:33
    Perhaps you don't need mice. They are power hingryy, take up ports, and you can always use "hot keys"

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    Socrates said...
    Wisdom begins in Wonder
    Alexander The Great said...
    To the strongest
    Somebody said...
    -Never Underestimate the power of human stupidity.
    -Funny, the third guy never did get down in history

    ·
  • bulkheadbulkhead Posts: 405
    edited 2006-04-22 00:36
    Well, this is for a computer programming competition. A team of 5 gets to use 3 or so computers to program. The idea was to hook up 2 pairs of keyboards (and mice) to 1 laptop, and have 2 "active" windows where things can be typed up in. The two windows could just be minimized partially so both users can share a screen, or an extra monitor could be hooked up (the normal way).

    Chris, do you remember what that product was called? Sounds like exactly what I'm looking for.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2006-04-22 03:16
    No, I don't recall, there were a lot of clones of it though.· There are devices you can plug in and they treat the computer as if it were two computers.· On a laptop though you'd have to see if a USB version were available.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
    csavage@parallax.com
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2006-04-22 11:09
    I would look toward Second Hand card dealers. Maybe EBay.
    While these things were popular ten years ago, they never got the kind of software support that a product needs.

    They exist, but obvious everyone would prefer their own computer rather than have to wait due to the slowing down cause by having double the files open.

    The real question is what keywords do you search for? Can anyone point the way. Maybe there is one product that was above the rest. A brand name?

    Alternatively, if you could connect two USB Keyboards and two USB mice to a Windows computer -- someone might have a way to just do it all in software.

    There are some SHELLS out their that are quite esoteric and hackible.
    Try www.astonshell.com for example.
    I know there more and I have them on my harddisk, but my Goggle Desktop seems to have gone bad with recent security updates.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "When all think alike, no one is thinking very much.' - Walter Lippmann (1889-1974)

    ······································································ Warm regards,····· G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse]·黃鶴 ]·in Taiwan
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2006-04-22 12:11
    I have one of those cards, and well...

    I think I've seen WinNT drivers(probably for NT3.51) but nothing newer than that.
    And with the cost of a new PC today, and the effortless and cheap networking, there just isn't a market for this kind of technology anymore.

    And my card is one of the later models. Most were ISA-bus type cards with DOS drivers.

    The Problem with using two keyboards, mice or whatever is that the system only has one queue for buffering the signals from them.
    you'd have to set up another queue, assign input-devices to them, and find a method of reliably assigning the correct queue to each program that runs.
    (This is easier with the cards as they have input connectors you could make dedicated drivers for. Using only USB-type equipment, though... a mess)

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  • XNORXNOR Posts: 74
    edited 2006-04-24 15:26
    A.C. fishing said...
    Socrates said...
    Wisdom begins in Wonder
    Alexander The Great said...
    To the strongest
    Somebody said...
    -Never Underestimate the power of human stupidity.
    -Funny, the third guy never did get down in history


    Just for trivia's sake, here is the reference and some more "stupidity" quotes:
    Enjoy! wink.gif

    Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. freaked.gif
    - Robert A. Heinlein

    Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,
    and I'm not sure about the former. rolleyes.gif
    - Albert Einstein

    The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. turn.gif
    - Albert Einstein
  • Tom WalkerTom Walker Posts: 509
    edited 2006-04-24 17:56
    Stupid is forever...ignorance can be fixed.....

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    Truly Understand the Fundamentals and the Path will be so much easier...
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2006-04-24 18:28
    Tom Walker said...
    Stupid is forever...

    I though no one could be elected president more than 3 times?

    smile.gif

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    Don't visit my new website...
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