Application Launch notification ideas (Hourglass)

[sunburnt]

I think a popup would look clunky in this case, the mouse cursor changing is the best approach.
I don't say this because of WinSnows, it's just an eye candy - common use - functional thing.
I hated the clunky popups I had to use for my USB auto mounter app.

Hi guys... Haven't seen (heard) some of you in a while!

[hanzf]

Based on that I think that the requirement is actually the following

Notify the user when an application is launching

This thread is to validate (or invalidate) that previous statement. And to gather ideas on how to address this requirement.

I fully agree. Me personally, I like the KDE bouncing Cursor very much.
I always found it confusing that, in WinXP, the hourglass almost always disappears long before the application shows on the screen.

Once the file is loaded, it starts the WinMain function, and from that point all the hourglasses you see are done by the application, including while waiting for any internal initialisation or module loading sequences. In a large application with a lot of dynamically loaded plugin modules the initialisation can take quite a long time - maybe a minute or more - but it's done in WinMain, not by the OS window manager. And if you think about it, really the only thing the WM can measure is loading the binary file, the WM can't tell if or when any internal initialisation is happening.

Thank you for the explanation.

For seamonkey I would just adjust the scripts to pass the -splash option to the seamonkey.bin binary

Thank you, works fine with the desktop "Browse" icon that opens "/usr/local/bin/defaultbrowser". Menu > Internet > SeaMonkey web browser opens "mozilla" (according to /root/.jwmrc) and I haven't yet found an executable file "mozilla", does anyone know where it is?
(But I use the desktop icon much more anyway)

thanks from a user with little (but not no) programming ambitions

[Sylvander]

In Windows I have set sounds for "Open Program" [bloop] and "Close Program" [whoosh] events.

Hence, when all the programs on the startup list are being processed...
I hear bloop, boop, whoosh, bloop, etc.
This lets me know that all is progressing as it should.
It could also be of great help if there was a fault and there was no display on the monitor, and yet I could hear that the startup was progressing normally but all unseen.

I can adjust the volume at the speakers so that it can be heard, but is not obtrusive.

And during a normal Windows session...
If I do something to make a program run...
I hear the bloop as it begins...
And if I close a program...
I hear the whoosh as it terminates.

This is of great help in timing my actions to fit in with what the software is doing.
e.g. If a new action depends upon the previous action being first completed...
I hover the mouse...
And only click when I hear the whoosh.

In BoxPup I have the CPU usage display down in the tray, so feel no lack of an indicator of what's going on.
But it would be nice to have the aural feedback [sounds] too.

[rufwoof]

Yes, I think it's a problem that people keep clicking, There was a pup for firefox that popped up a box that said firefox is starting, I don't remember which one. That was very helpful, since firefox takes a miniute to start on a 400mhz machine.l

Invoking slow to start programs through a wrapper script such as the following might do the trick. i.e the program invoked and sent to the background and then falling through to display a splash screen for a couple of seconds to say that something is actually happening

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
PROG=$1
shift
$PROG $@ &
yaf-splash -close never -fontsize small -bg green -fb black -text "Loading - please wait" &
X3PID=$!
sleep 2
kill $X3PID

[mikeb]

wow old thread ...you old dog you....

Yes something I forget is not there...I use Xfce4 and it does it. Binary approach is the neatest...perhaps JWM could add something useful as that 'dead' feeling is not sophisticated

Actually one though...cpu monitors do their thing when a new app is launched but thats probably a hopeless non starter.

Your script makes sense IF and sensibly only IF packages for puppy were built for puppy. Big bunnies like libreoffice could have it. And tell libre not to hog the focus on its way up from the ocean depths

mike