Thu Dec 18 10:04:46 2003 
Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com>
http://www.deepsoft.com/

Tkrp3 is a re-implementation of the Rp3 program supplied as part of the
redhat-config-network.  The Rp3 is the Gnome-style application for
connecting and disconecting to a dialup connection via ppp.  Since I
don't use Gnome myself I found that there were some configuration
features, such as the application's geometry (size and placement) that
could not be fixed in some sort of configuration file.  I decided to
re-implement this utility in TclTk, which both uses the standard X11
resource DB and takes the standard X11 -geometry command line option.

There were some other 'mising' features of Rp3 that I wanted, including
separate listing of send and receive thoughput values.

This is a pretty simple first pass at implementing a point-and-click
implementation of a utility to start and stop a ppp connection.

--------

Using the program.
==================

  tkrp3 [-geometry WxH+X+Y] [-interface interfacename]

The -geometry option takes a standard X11 geometry string.  The default
is a modest sized GUI centered on the screen.

The -interface option takes the name of a an interface to use by
default.  The interface names are the symbolic names stored in the
/usr/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ppp* files using the NAME=
parameter.  The default is the first interface name in alphabetical
order.  Only ppp interfaces that have NAME= parameters and have USERCTL
set to yes or true and ONBOOT set to no or false.

X11 resources:

	interfaceName (InterfaceName)
		default startup interface

	geometry (Geometry)
		default startup geometry

There are two control options:

	The button (with the dot) is both the up/down control and the
up/down indicator.  Clicking this button either starts the interface (if
it is down) or stops the interface (if it it up).  When the interface is
up, the dot is colored green and when the interface is down it is
colored black.

	Right clicking anywhere on the interface while it is down pops
up a menu of possible interfaces, allowing the user to switch between
ISPs and/or modems.

--------------------

Understanding what is displayed.
================================

The GUI displays a bar graph that is sliding to the left, one bar per
second.  The red bars (at the top) are the second-by-second send throughput
and the green bars (at the bottom) are the second-by-second receive
throughput.  Below the graph, at the right end are three textual
displays: the top (in white) is the online time in HH:MM, the middle (in
green) is the current receive throughput, and the bottom (in red) is the
current send throughput.  There are also a pair of colored circles at
the left.  The upper (black/green) circle indicates receive traffic and
the lower (black/red) circle indicates send traffic.
