[gnome-love] Re: GNOME Screensaver Frontend [Backend]

["Curtis C. Hovey" <sinzui cox net>]

On Sun, 2003-11-23 at 20:45, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Something that has come up many times, but probably not fleshed out enough
> for pimping to gnome-love and new contributors is a new GNOME Screensaver
> frontend. Despite previous attempts, it seems that 'fixing' GNOME support in
> xscreensaver itself is pretty pointless, but the hacks 'protocol/standard'
> is worth supporting, so...
>
>   * New GNOME daemon and frontend to launch and configure xscreensaver hacks
>     (it could be in gnome-settings-daemon or something like that, but that's
>     an implementation detail).
>
>   * Provides some detail to the rest of the system about idle time (via X
>     and D-BUS, whatever standards are in place). Curtis had some points
>     about this, which I'll leave to him.

There are a number of GNOME applications that monitor idle/activity, and
each has its own code to do it: xsceensaver + xlock, DrWright,
medusa-indexd, power management.  I think some daemon is needed (maybe
gnome-settings-daemon) to monitor the hardware and report the status to
subscribing applications.  The API may need conflict resolution because
an indexer cannot run if the HD is powered down.  The API may also
provide time-based actions like cron for users to schedule tools to run.

>   * Integrates with GDM to make the fast user switching stuff we already
>     have (thanks to George's awesome work) waaay easier to access.

If we enable fast access, shouldn't applications like Evo know not to
show appointment notification if the screensaver is active?  I use a
screensaver that distorts the screen so I can see Evo notifications, but
this is not good behavior for a multi-user setup.  It might be correct
for Evo/GDM to display that user X has messages.

>   * We can ship a set of very appropriate, sensible and GNOMEy hacks with
>     the package, that may use GNOME libraries and whatnot (stuff like
>     libart, cairo, svg, yada yada, whatever we have to hand in the Developer
>     Platform or Desktop).

I really only want one screen saver that acts as an information service
like Evo summary:  calendar, clock, appointments + notification, new
mail, new IM, weather, rss feeds.

>   * People who really love the xscreensaver hacks can always install them
>     and use them if they want, because they'd be used and found in exactly
>     the same way.
>
> It's hard to put things like this in bugzilla, so here it is here. ;-)
>
> Thanks,
>
> - Jeff
-- 
__C U R T I S  C.  H O V E Y____________________
sinzui cox net
Guilty of stealing everything I am.