On Wed, 02 May 2001 16:09:34 EDT, Paul Davis said: > And then when you're done, you should reconsider the reasons why you > want to do this, because unless its an audio program there is almost > never a good reason for it. There's a *very* good reason for it for some programs: Alerts. If a program is intended to be run in the background and notify you when an event you may be interested in happens, sound is a good way to do it. As I'm editing a Perl script, I may hear the chime that means GAIM has received a message from somebody I want to talk to immediately, or a different chime for somebody I can delay. When my e-mail comes in, I get different spoken "New mail from", so I can tell how important it is. "New Mail from gtk mailing list" means when I get around to it, "new mail from <my boss's e-0mail addr>" means I need to go poke Exmh *now* to see what it says. Remember that the window can't necessarily do a 'visual flash' and get your attention - my Enlightenment has 6 virtual desktops going, and if a program flashes on one of the other 5, I don't see it. Sure.. the program can go and call 'XBell()' and get an annoying beep. But that does *NOTHING* to give cues about which program wanted attention, or what priority it is. There's another very good reason for sound: Additional feedback. Some people *like* running their keyboards with keyclick enabled. Why? because it provides an additional confirmation that a key has been pressed. I have the Enlightenment window manager set up to give a small 'click' sound when window focus changes. Why? As an additional hint - if I've been sloppy and left the mouse very near the edge of a window, and I hear a click I wasn't expecting, I know my mouse has slid and focus has changed. Sound almost never benefits a program that you're paying attention to. It's when you need reminding that you are NOT paying attention to it that sound is a winner. -- Valdis Kletnieks Operating Systems Analyst Virginia Tech
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