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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    KDE 2.0 Screensavers
From:       Martin Jones <mjones () powerup ! com ! au>
Date:       1999-07-04 1:28:31
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Hi,

I've written the basis of a new screensaver engine for KDE 2.0.

The screensaver works in a similar way to xscreensaver, i.e. a driver
(kdesktop) provides the timeout, locking, and blanking functionality,
but does no actual drawing.  A separate stand-alone program capable of
drawing on a supplied window is used to do the actual fancy graphics.
xscreensaver's "hacks" will work with the KDE screensaver engine.
 
This makes adding new screensavers trivial, and means one less process
that must always be running (compared to KDE 1.x).
 
The screensaver is controlled via KWM module commands:
 
kwmcom kss_reconfigure        Reloads the screensaver config from
lt-desktoprc.
kwmcom kss_lock               Locks the screensaver immediately.

A CORBA interface could also be provided.

At the moment no way of launching the hack has been implemented,
partly because I'm not sure how to tell the screensaver engine
what hacks are available.  In KDE 1.x all screensavers were
named *.kss, so no config file was required to locate the
screensavers.  This is not satisfactory anymore since xscreensaver
or other programs not related to KDE may be used, and may require
different command line parameters.

I propose using *.desktop files to describe available hacks.  I
would like to put them in $KDEDIR/share/applnk/Screensavers but
they would be displayed in the K menu, which is really quite
pointless (perhaps the config dialog, or a demonstration could
be launched).  Where else could they be placed?

I would like to commit my current implementation soon if no one
objects.  Unfortunately, the control center tab will require a
minor rewrite, and the existing screensavers must be stripped
down a little.  So if I commit this, for a while you will only
have a black screen for a screen saver.  Is this a problem for
anyone?

bye,

-- 
Martin Jones
mjones@kde.org

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