Re: running this by you: Application Launch Detection for Gnome

[Mary Dwyer <Mary Dwyer ireland sun com>]

hi again

I made the code available to download:

http://www.geocities.com/gmansundude/Feedback-0.1.tar.gz

http://www.geocities.com/gmansundude/libgdk-1.2.so.0.5.3.gz (linux)

http://www.geocities.com/gmansundude/libgdk-1.2.so.0.5.4.gz (solaris)

cheers

Mary

> Delivered-To: gnome-gui-list gnome org
> Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 09:02:11 +0000 (GMT)
> From: Mary Dwyer <Mary Dwyer ireland sun com>
> Subject: running this by you: Application Launch Detection for Gnome
> To: gnome-hackers gnome org, gnome-gui-list gnome org
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-MD5: q1tMFVBICIhnX/LAjFov8w==
> X-BeenThere: gnome-gui-list gnome org
> X-Loop: gnome-gui-list gnome org
> X-Mailman-Version: 2.0beta5
> List-Id: GNOME GUI standards <gnome-gui-list.gnome.org>
> 
> hi 
> 
> I forwarded this email to these aliases last week, but the code attachments 
made 
> the mails too large to be forwarded - apologies.  If you are interested in 
this 
> and would like to see the code please email me and I will forward to you the 
> taballs directly. 
> (Size of the feedback tarball is 163kb, size of gdk library tarball is 277kb)
> 
> cheers
> Mary
> 
> ------------- Begin Forwarded Message -------------
> 
> Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 17:20:50 +0000 (GMT)
> From: Mary Dwyer <maryd ireserver>
> Subject: running this by you: Application Launch Detection for Gnome
> To: altic lysator liu se, hp redhat com, otaylor redhat com, 
> gnome-hackers gnome org, gnome-gui-list gnome org
> Cc: maryd
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> 
> 
> 
> hi
> 
> I was involved in email discussions at the end of last year on this subject 
with
> Peter Astrand (author of Xalf), Owen, Havoc and others on some gnome-aliases.
> Some issues that arose in providing a solution for visual feedback for 
> application launching were:
> - problems of using a solution involving LD_PRELOAD  
> - problems of a solution involving the patching of Xlib mapping functions
> - desirability of establishing a common protocol that will work for both gnome 		
>   and non gnome apps
>   
> Ideas put forward included:
> - setting a new property on top level window of gnome applications.
>   _NET_WM_PID was discussed but this leads to problems when starting
>   apps via a script.
> - using the root window's _WIN_CLIENT_LIST property to monitor for
>   new windows, and then checking if this new property has been set on
>   the app.
> 
> With these issues/suggestions in mind I did some experimenting and came up 
with 
> the attached 'prototype'.
> 1.  Visual feedback is controlled by an ORBit server (called feedback-server),
>     and client (feedback-client).
> 2.  feedback-client acts as a binary wrapper around the app to be launched.
>     - It sets an environmental variable (DESKTOP_LAUNCH_ID) with a unique 
value.
>     - It then invokes a remote method to start the visual feedback for this 
app.
>       (At the moment this is the tasklist window hacked from the Xalf code, 
but
>        by implementing a pluggable interface here could have customised
>        visual feedback). A compliance flag indicates whether this is a gnome
>        application or not.
>     -  feedback-client then invokes a remote oneway method (monitorWindows()) 
>        to monitor the root window for any changes in the _WIN_CLIENT_LIST        
>        property (ie addition of new window).
>     - feedback-client then forks and execs the app to be launched.
> 3.  The gdk library has been edited so that if the DESKTOP_LAUNCH_ID has been
>     set then the property _NET_WM_LAUNCH_ID is set on the toplevel window of
>     the gtk app.
> 4.  Once the remote method monitorWindows() detects the new window, it checks
>     for the _NET_WM_LAUNCH_ID property and stops the appropriate feedback.
>     If the new window does not have the _NET_WM_LAUNCH_ID set, and if the 
>     feedback was started for a non-gnome app (ie compliance flag not set), 
>     then the feedback is stopped (similar to Xalf's mappingmode).
>     In this way the framework supports applications using a toolkit that
>     supports the DESKTOP_LAUNCH_ID property and the _NET_WM_LAUNCH_ID 
property.
>     It also has a default solution for other apps.
>     
>     
> The attached code is a basic prototype designed as a proof of concept of the 
> framework. Some of the technology is new to me so the prototype is far from 
> perfect. In particular, I had some problems integrating it with OAF, so I 
> resorted to writing an ior to a file :-(. This means you have to manually 
start 
> the feedback-server each time. But as I said, I was just concentrating on 
> investigating the framework.
> 
> I would very much appreciate some feedback/discussion on this.
>        
> To set up prototype:
> - unzip and untar tarball as usual
> - run configure and make as usual
> - locate attached library in a directory and create a link as follows:
>   $mv libgdk-1.2.so.0.5.3 /mydir
>   #chmod 755 /mydir/libgdk-1.2.so.0.5.3
>   #ln -s /mydir/libgdk-1.2.so.0.5.3 /mydir/libgdk-1.2.so.0
>   (NOTE:  is the gtk+-1.2.8 linux library 
>          libgdk-1.2.so.0.5.4 is the solaris library)
>   
> To run:
> 
> 1. Have the tasklist applet running on your front panel
> 
> 2. server
> OAF code is not working, so need to manually start feedback-server
> $cd visual-feedback/src
> $./feedback-server
> 
> 3. start app
> $export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/mydir:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
> $export INSTALL_DIR=/opt/GNOME-debug (or whatever non-default location you 
use)
> $cd visual-feedback/src
> $./feedback-client gcalc (or any gnome app)
> 
> Repeat using netscape (ie non-gnome) 
> (NOTE: feedback-server will need to be restarted each time)
> 
>   
> many thanks
> Mary       
>        
>        
> 
> 
> ~ I speak for myself, not for my employer ~
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> Mary Dwyer
> Desktop Applications & Middleware Grp
> Sun Microsystems Ireland
> Tel: +353-1-8199222 (xt 19222)
> Fax: +353-1-8199078
> email: mary dwyer ireland sun com
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> ------------- End Forwarded Message -------------
> 
> 
> ~ I speak for myself, not for my employer ~
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> Mary Dwyer
> Desktop Applications & Middleware Grp
> Sun Microsystems Ireland
> Tel: +353-1-8199222 (xt 19222)
> Fax: +353-1-8199078
> email: mary dwyer ireland sun com
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> 
> 
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> gnome-gui-list gnome org
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~ I speak for myself, not for my employer ~
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Mary Dwyer
Desktop Applications & Middleware Grp
Sun Microsystems Ireland
Tel: +353-1-8199222 (xt 19222)
Fax: +353-1-8199078
email: mary dwyer ireland sun com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=