9.4.1 Using a Networked Geomview Host

The Geomview command looks at the DISPLAY or REMOTEHOST environment variables to try to determine if you are logged in from another computer. If either of these indicates that you are, Geomview will attempt to run Geomview on that computer. In order for this to work, your network must be configured such that the Mathematica computer can successfully rsh to the Geomview computer without giving a password.

You can also explicitly set the DisplayHost option to the Geomview command to a string which is the desired hostname, for example:

     In[1] := << OOGL.m
     
     In[2] := Plot3D[Sin[x + Sin[y]], {x,-2,2},{y,-2,2}]
     
     Out[2] := -Graphics3D-
     
     In[3] := Geomview[%3, DisplayHost->"riemann"]

This displays the graphics %3 on the remote host named riemann.

Geomview recognizes the string "local" as a value for $DisplayHost; it forces the graphics to be displayed on the local machine.

In addition to knowing the name of the machine you want to run Geomview on, Geomview needs to know the type of that machine (the setting of the CPU variable that corresponds to the machine; see Source Code Installation). By default, Geomview assumes that it is the same kind of computer as the one you are running Mathematica on. The MachType option lets you explicitly specify the type of the DisplayHost computer; it should be one of the strings "sgi" or "next" or "x11".

You can use SetOptions to change the default DisplayHost and MachType. For example,

     In[4] := SetOptions[Geomview, DisplayHost->"riemann", MachType->"sgi"]

arranges for Geomview to run Geomview on an SGI workstation named riemann.