Re: Timeout for webkiosk

On Tue, 2 Dec 2003 12:16:16 +0000
Matthew Allum <[email protected]> wrote:

> If you were to hack it into matchbox, Id add something to
> wm_event_loop() in wm.c that tracks the lack of mouse / keyboard
> events over a period of time.

I think that having something like this built in to the WM itself (even
if its controlled by a config option) is a great idea.

We struggled with this problem when working on set top boxes. 
Obviously, it would be fun to have login capabilities for different
members of the family with different UI capabilities, messaging, and of
course, parental controls.  

The biggest problem is that people would be notoriously lazy when it
comes to logging out, and it wouldn't do to have a parent forget to log
out and have the kid come along with full access to Cinimax.  A timeout
would be very useful in this situation, though on a STB its a bit more
complicated, because you could go hours without touching anything (while
you are watching a movie, for example).

Anyway, I think that a timeout mechanism would be very useful to have in
the Matchbox code - its cleaner then depending on an external
application, especially in situations where logging in is required to
track charges - you don't want to have a situation where the killing
application fails to spawn.

Jordan

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