One commonly found Calendar feature that we'd like to implement is
the ability to have reminder dialogs for events be displayed even
when the Chandler GUI isn't visible (see https://
bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5407).
Presumably, this would be something users could turn on and off, lest
we be accused of propagating some kind of CPU-hogging virus :). It's
unlikely we'll have time to do this in the α4 time frame, but I'd
like to request comments and/or propose some ideas for how we could
get this done.
Also, since I'm somewhat of a Mac guy, and solving the issue will
probably require different behaviours on Windows & Linux, it would be
good to enlist the help of people who know the other platforms well.
For instance, there may be OS-specific services that I'm not aware of
that could be helpful here. The main technical stumbling block that I
see is one that probably has a platform-specific answer:
+++ How do we make sure that some kind of background process or app
runs whenever the user is logged in?
[[For instance, on the Mac, you can add a "background" app to the
user's list of login items; in 10.4 (Tiger) there may be a way to
leverage launchd. I know there's a Service facility on Windows you
can use to launch background processes, though I'm not sure if this
would be the right thing to be using. What's the story with Linux?
Probably there are mechanisms in KDE/Gnome... ]].
Assuming that issue has been resolved, I can see at least four
different options:
1) Have two separate processes, the app and a background daemon/
service, that both access the user's repository. The way I understand
things (Andi, correct me if I'm wrong), both processes would need to
poll (via the repository view refresh() API) to detect when changes
have occurred. It turns out Chandler does this already (in a wx idle
event callback), while the reminder process could presumably just
check every minute (if it's not displaying any UI).
2) Have two processes, but have the background daemon not use the
repository at all. (Maybe we're worried that people will try to store
their repositories on volumes that don't support file locking, or
something). Instead, the two communicate via a config file and/or
named pipes or something (insert sound of two hands waving profusely
here).
3) Along the lines of 2, have two processes, but have them handshake
at launch/quit so that only one is running (and responsible for
displaying reminders) at any given time.
4) Have just one process, today's Chandler, but add the ability for
it to switch between full UI & background (reminder-only) mode. So,
if background mode is in effect, and the user launches Chandler, a
little plastic garden gnome waves a sparkly wand and tells the
background process to display the full UI. Similarly, when you "quit"
the full UI app, it goes back into background (stealth) mode. (This
is easier, so the gnome gets a break).
Further options, or opinions as to what you think will or won't work,
would be appreciated.
--Grant
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