Re: jwz's run once hack

["Guillermo S. Romero / Familia Romero" <famrom infernal-iceberg com>]

jdub perkypants org (2001-07-30 at 1109.58 +1000):
> Probably a worthy addition to the GNOME panel.

Some comments:

1. Window Maker allows more launches with Ctrl, IIRC. Some people want
to launch more than one window (be it different process or same, via
factories / remote commands ie).

2. I do not see anything about new windows for Netscape in the code
(searched for "nets"). OTOH, if it exists or is added, how do you
explain that some buttons create new windows and others make old
windows be raised?

3. Where is xalf? I believe it was part of GNOME, but is not included
now (Ximian removed it? all GNOME versions?). The star animation, ie,
was a nice feedback to the user and non obstrusive at the same time.
It not only avoided the multilaunch, but the multiclick and the
desperation, while still allowing multiple windows.

4. It is not very smart, it raises a window of the given type, but
maybe not the one the user wants (and users can create new windows
with menus or by opening docs, so you can not assume that only one
window exists). And if you add desktops / viewports, it is even worse
(it raised but I guess the user could confuse it with "make it appear
here" when that is not the function).

My conclusion for now: Maybe for a kiosk runonce is enough, but I do
not see it so nice for desktop usage, except in case the system is so
loaded that it is unable to make the animation appear fast enough.

I propose that everyone compares a button with xalf vs other with
runonce. Xalf is used in a similar way, xalf <xalf opts> app <app
opts>, but includes a Control Center applet, so users can choose what
it does. For test purposes, you can use a slow-xterm.sh like:

---8<---
#!/bin/sh
sleep 5
exec xterm 
--->8---

Save in a dir that is in your $PATH and make it executable. Then try
buttons with "xalf -a slow-xterm &" vs "runonce XTerm slow-xterm &". I
used terminals as launchers (and as target), so maybe the buttons do
not need the "&".

The URLs of this apps, for those that do not have them already, are:
>  http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/src/kiosk/sbin/runonce.c
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~astrand/projects/xalf/

GSR