Assistive Technologies startup

[Mark McLoughlin <mark skynet ie>]

Hey,
	So, Bill is currently working on a control panel to configure which ATs
will be started up on log in and we've been discussing how the actual
configuration and startup of ATs should be best implemented.

	I think we have basically been considering two options:

	1) The control panel parses and write out ~/.gnome2/session-manual with
the details of the ATs to be started at login.

	2) The control panel manages a GConf key which contains the list of ATs
to be started at login.


	I'm very much against 1). session-manual was, AFAIK, a way to have
programs which don't support session management manually started by the
session manager. (Maybe Owen can spread some light here). I don't think
its something we should be looking to build upon.

	On the other hand, gnome-session already launches several different
"services" on startup depending on whether they are enabled or not ...
esd and gnome-settings-daemon. Adding support for launching ATs in a
similar way feels like a pretty natural progression.


	Neither option is particularly pretty, though. We currently lack any
method by which you can add an application to the saved session without
re-saving the entire session. Allowing this would be really nice, but
seeing as Bill needs a solution for 2.4, it doesn't really help us.


	To spread further confusion on the subject ... the previously
recommended way (according to Bill) to have ATs started on login was to
add them to session-manual. If we go with option 2), we need to figure
out a mechanism by which we don't end up starting multiple copies of the
ATs and also provide a sane migration path.

	Anyway. Comments/ideas very welcome ..

Thanks,
Mark.