DAN@IBM.COM.UUCP (03/03/87)
Surely you don't want the screen saver to put the screen back up every time the clock ticks in a window. If it is to be dependent on changes to a window then it must be on a per window basis. If it does not depend on the user interacting then how do you treat a message arriving and getting written to a window in the following cases: (1) screen is active but I am not watching it; (2) screen is not active and I am out of the room (so I don't see it come alive and go back to sleep). In both cases you will not notice the arrival of of the message unless you explicitly look at that window and remember its previous contents enough to notice that there is something new. The only case where I notice a write to the screen is if I am watching it. Admittedly it is particularly noticeable if you are watching a blank screen waiting for it to suddenly spring to life. It is useful to have an explicit key sequence to blank the screen if you are working on something personal and someone walks in who should not see what is on the screen. In particular I don't want the screen to suddenly appear while he is still there.
wesommer@ATHENA.MIT.EDU.UUCP (03/04/87)
Surely you don't want the screen saver to put the screen back up every time the clock ticks in a window. If I remember the story correctly from one of the X developers (Tony Della Fera??), xclock was originally written for just that purpose.. so that the screen saver wouldn't keep blanking the screen when the display was sitting in the background at a trade show. - Bill
tony@ATHENA.MIT.EDU.UUCP (03/04/87)
>> Surely you don't want the screen saver to put the screen back up every >> time the clock ticks in a window. >> >> If I remember the story correctly from one of the X developers (Tony >> Della Fera??), xclock was originally written for just that purpose.. >> so that the screen saver wouldn't keep blanking the screen when the >> display was sitting in the background at a trade show. Almost correct... I wrote the silly thing (which now suffers from feature-itis) to prevent the screen saver from engaging on workstations that were running user registration software out in the student clusters. My manager said: "Give me anything that continously updates the screen." I suggested a clock. You see, the students would see a VS100 with a blank screen under the "User Registration Terminal" sign and assume that it was broken! Tony...
kissane@motcid.UUCP (John G. Kissane) (05/08/91)
I am looking for some X applications for screen blanking. (i.e., do something nice after the keyboard/mouse has been idle for a given time) The standard is OK, but I would prefer something more colorful ?? I am hoping for something along the lines of "After Dark" on the mac. Does anyone know of any and where they can be obtained ? -- John Kissane, Mahon Industrial Estate, Motorola Ireland Ltd. Blackrock, Cork, Ireland. ...!uunet!motcid!kissane +353-21-357-101
mouse@lightning.mcrcim.mcgill.EDU (der Mouse) (05/09/91)
> I am looking for some X applications for screen blanking. (i.e., do > something nice after the keyboard/mouse has been idle for a given > time) The standard is OK, but I would prefer something more colorful > ?? > I am hoping for something along the lines of "After Dark" on the mac. > Does anyone know of any and where they can be obtained ? The problem is that doing this requires a server extension. The core X protocol provides no way[%] for the screen-saver to tell when the user is idle.... I believe there is an extension (the name xidle comes to mind) that addresses the problem. I haven't looked at it, since I don't go in for flashy "screen savers": if I'm idle long enough for a screen-saver to kick in, I'm not here to see what's going on on the screen anyway. (Are there really people who do sit around watching screen-saver pictures? I suppose there must be....) [%] Well, no practical way. It may be possible to kludge something with grabs, but I suspect that would (a) impose an unacceptable performance penalty and (b) interfere with applications that use grabs. der Mouse old: mcgill-vision!mouse new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu
ex2mike@cybaswan.UUCP ( m overton) (06/28/91)
A friend and I were talking the other day about screen savers on X and other window systems. Although their use is well known for monochrome screens, he (the friend) believed that they were not required for colour screens. At this point we both realised that neither of us knew whether this is true. So this is the question - are colour screens equally as liable to burn as monochrome. If not, why? It would certainly be nice to know the truth. Mike Overton (ex2mike@pyr.swan.ac.uk)