tasklist alert

[Sean Middleditch <sean middleditch iname com>]

I have a question for the gnome developers/users - would it be a wanted 
feature to allow the tasklist to in some way 'alert' users that a window 
want their attention?  Apps can have pop ups and sound or whatnot, but 
popups are just plain annoying, and sound won't work for a lot of people 
(for example, I don't have speakers on my workstation at work).  I was 
thinking of somehow making it possible for an application to signal that 
it wants an alert, and then the tasklist or whatever app could see this 
and somehow show it.  The tasklist might do this by, perhaps, blinking a 
different color, or changing the icon somehow, or whatever (perhaps user 
configurable).  This could be done, I would think, using window manager 
hints?  Then, any program that sets this hint would have to be correctly 
programmed to clear the hint once it's window receives focus.

Also, if anyone wants this feature, and I started working on it, should 
I work from the latest released tarball or CVS HEAD, or another CVS branch?

Thanks,
Sean Middleditch