App-start feedback

[Peter Astrand <altic lysator liu se>]

A few weeks ago, I released Xalf 0.2. It's a tool to give
feedback when starting X applications. KDE already has a working
implementation, and will use the same method as Xalf. I'm
investigating how application start feedback can be implemented in
Gnome. Assuming we agree on this is something we want, there are
some design decisions that has to be made. 


1) When the feedback should be used; which functions should trigger
   it. We could make an new function, like
   gnome_execute_async_with_feedback in gnome-exec. But libgnome
   shouldn't have any X11 related code, or? How can this be solved?
   Make a new module in libgnomeui, called gnome-launch-feedback?

   Calls to gnome_execute_async in gnome-ditem.c can then be changed
   to gnome_execute_async_with_feedback, so that all applications
   launched via panel or desktop is launched with feedback. 


2) If the feedback code should be put directly into gnome-libs, or if
   a hook for calling an external starter (like Xalf) should be
   provided. It should be quite easy to get the command with something like:
   
   	gnome_config_get_vector ("/Gnome/Settings/FeedbackCommand",
				&cmd_argc, &cmd_argv);

   ...and prepend it to the executed commandline. A good thing about
   calling an external command is for example easy customization. The
   feedback command can be anything: a tool giving feedback by playing
   a female voice throught the sound system, blinking the keyboard
   leds, etc.

   The bad thing is that we have to trust the external command. I
   personally think it's better to make an implementation directly in
   gnome-libs. 


I'd like comments on all this. If you wan't to test how reliable the
Xalf method is, please take a look at
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~altic/projects/xalf/xalf-0.2.tgz. 


Useful links:
   Xalf page on Freshmeat:
     http://www.freshmeat.net/appindex/2000/04/18/956064419.html
   Xalf homepage: 
     http://www.lysator.liu.se/~altic/projects/xalf
   KDE's decision to switch to Xalf method:
     http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-devel&m=95662046804968&w=2


/Peter Astrand <altic@lysator.liu.se>