three open issues for gnome

[tb becket net (Thomas Bushnell, BSG)]

I have three open issues for me--things that I frequently wish worked
better when using Gnome--and I wanted to bring them up.

If they have already been discussed, can you please give me a pointer,
and I'll review the previous discussion?

1) Sound

Many programs make sounds.  It could be just audio-feedback (which is
already nice) but also of course a/v viewers and so forth.  But alas,
of course, this doesn't work for applications being run via a remote X
server set up with ssh -X.  Ideally, X should be extended, I
think--audio output should be coupled with video output and mouse and
keyboard input.  But changing X is, well, unlikely.  It would be very
nice if Gnome include architectural support for remote sounds so that
things Just Work.  A related problem here is the lack of agreement
about just what the sound outputs should be: importantly, some
programs insist on using /dev/dsp and don't have esd output, and this
loses.  A useful thing would be a /dev/dsp-like device that could take
samples and feed them to esd.

2) Web browsing.  Lots of gnome programs provide live links that pop
up a web browser.  I run galeon on the same system as my X server, and
I want programs started up remotely to automagically get the galeon on
the same machine as the X server.  And indeed, I want to always get
galeon.  It seems quite random what I do get---sometimes mozilla pops
up, or *netscape*.  One program thought the thing to do was bring up
emacs in w3 mode!  There is some infrastructure here (gnome-moz-remote
and all), and it may be that I just have things configured badly, but
I would like it if it DTRT

3) mailto URLs.  I use Emacs to send mail.  When I click on a mailto
URL--within or without my web browser--it should pop up an emacs
window sending mail to the relevant spot.

Thomas