Re: ANNOUNCE: Deskbar Applet 0.3 (keybindings)

[Alex Graveley <alex beatniksoftware com>]

Hi,

So my initial keybinding implementation tried to use metacity's command 
GConf keys.  It's really gross in practice, since every time at startup 
I had to iterate the keys and determine if the default bindings exist, 
and re-add them if not.  Also, the number of commands is bounded.

I don't think we can rely on using D-BUS in the core desktop just yet, 
and we don't need to for this...

I think the global binding problem can be solved by just designating a 
GConf path that apps install a keybinding action into.  Then create a 
library with tomboykeybinder.c that apps call into with the GConf paths 
they are interested in.  The library reads the GConf binding keys for 
the app and registers the X root window event handler.

The library can handle processing the events and updating the X bindings 
whenever the GCconf keys get changed.  Then you just have to expose the 
GConf tree through gnome-keybinding-properties.

This makes things a lot easier to debug and there is no overhead if an 
app with global bindings is not running.

-Alex

Nigel Tao wrote:
> Alex Graveley wrote:
>
> > I think it is a bad idea to make the global keybinding more
> > accessible to apps... really there should be a central API that
> > integrates with GConf to store keys sequences and command actions
> > which integrates with gnome-keybinding-properties (which has a
> > static action list today). This would avoid global keybinding
> > conflicts and allow altering them in a single place.
>
>
> I was thinking... metacity already allows binding a key combo to
> an arbitrary command.  It's not exposed as a GUI (yet...?), but you
> can do it through gconf keys.
>
> As a hack, I could piggy-back on metacity's global keybinding
> behavior, and the triggered command could be a little script to
> raise a D-Bus signal.  My applet would respond by requesting focus.
>
> Having said that, I haven't looked at D-Bus and its API at all.  Is
> this feasible?  Is D-Bus the most appropriate way?
>
> Should this be rolled into gnome-keybinding-properties in general
> (i.e., have a "raise signal %s" or even a plain "arbitrary command"
> as a bindable Action)?
>
> thanks,
> Nigel.
>
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