Re: Inactivity timeout configuration

I guess you hit the nail on its head:

Workrave is designed for controlling the time spent typing.

If you are trying to solve any other problem than that, one needs to
wonder if
1. The problem can really be solved
2. It would be a meaningful extension to workrave

As to point 1, I guess experience shows that the answer is "no", and not
for lack of trying. The fundamental problem is that workrave cannot read
your mind and hence cannot know that you are using the computer, unless
you are typing and/or using the mouse. Of course you can make some
educated guesses, by fidding with activity timeouts, or assuming the
user is always using the computer ("Suspend timers when inactive",
anyone?) At one point I even proposed adding webcam support to workrave,
such that workrave can "see" you using the computer. The point is that
all of these educated guesses are bound to be wrong for someone, and
hence require extensive UI support to configure, which brings me to point 2.

Workrave tries to adhere to the unix design goal to "do one thing, and
do it well", as well as to have the right defaults, instead of adding
configuration (Gnome's "less is more" philosophy). I am pretty happy
with where we are in that respect. If your problem is "controlling the
time spent typing", there is no tool I'd recommend over workrave (and
believe me, I've looked), even though configuration is a bit complex
already.

Of course, elements of workrave could be reused to solve other problems
as well. Workrave has really nice break windows. If only we could
measure the time someone is "using" the computer (as opposed to typing),
we could show breaks for that as well. Additionally, we could add
"breaks" for events at specific times, like lunch or coffee breaks.
Workrave also has quite sophisticated activity measurement. We could add
new clocks to measure the time spent in the morning, the afternoon or
the evening. We could... Eh... I'm getting ahead of myself.

The point is, that although parts of workrave could be re-used to do
other things, that does not necessarily mean that it is a meaningful
extension to workrave, because it does not contribute to solving the
problem of "controlling the time spent typing", and will need a lot of
configuration in the UI, which will confuse the main audience.

This is not to say that those other problems are in any way "invalid" or
"unimportant". Just that extending workrave is (imho) not the right
solution.

Groetjes,

Kees-Jan


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