idea: widget alert

["Timothy Stebbing" <tjs nunatak com au>]

G'day,

Long time listner, first time caller, so to speak, I've been using gtk for
various things through python for a year and a bit now, thanks for the
neat toolkit.

I'm interested in seeing a new feature added to gtk, a method on all
widgets for 'alerting' the user to the widget. This would make the widget
blink/glow/throb/sparkle, depending on the gtk theme engine in use.

The primary use for this would be to notify the user about some change in
the state of the application, for instance a 'wizard' could call alert()
on the 'next' button once all fields on the page have been filled in. I
can see this being used for things like the pager, when an app changes
urgency, or in applets to alert new mail recieved, etc.

Perhaps alert could take a level of urgency, form 0 to 2, that the theme
could use to alter its alert affect.As all widgets are rectangular, the
call would pass the widget dimentions to the theme engine.

I don't see this as being purely an eye-candy feature, but something that
will enhance the usability of applications built with gtk+.

Thanks for your time,

-tjs