From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,2b4035d737f33f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-01-31 10:27:57 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!nntp-relay.ihug.net!ihug.co.nz!news-hog.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!newsfeed.stanford.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!hammer.uoregon.edu!skates!not-for-mail From: Stephen Leake Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Need advice on Reminder program Date: 31 Jan 2001 13:08:55 -0500 Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: anarres.gsfc.nasa.gov Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: skates.gsfc.nasa.gov 980965321 398 128.183.220.71 (31 Jan 2001 18:22:01 GMT) X-Complaints-To: dscoggin@cne-odin.gsfc.nasa.gov NNTP-Posting-Date: 31 Jan 2001 18:22:01 GMT User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/20.6 Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:4771 Date: 2001-01-31T18:22:01+00:00 List-Id: randhol+abuse@pvv.org (Preben Randhol) writes: > Hi > > I have started making a small reminder program called avtale (Norwegian > for appointment) because I am tired of all the programs for Linux that > suddenly stop reminding me about appointments I have. I want to make a > small daemon that reads in a text file with appointments and warn me by > popping up a dialog on the screen (possibly sound effect and more later, > but not now I want to keep it simple and reliable). > > My thought is to use tasks for this. One task that pop up the dialogs, > one that read the text file and one that keeps track of the time. I do > not have experience with tasks so I am wondering if this is a stupid > approach :-) ? Is there something I should look out for so that the > daemon won't suddenly stop working. I want a really reliable program > :-). You only need to read the text file once, at startup, so you don't need a separate task for that. Hmm, you do need some way to add appointments; leave that for later? When a dialog box is popped up, do you want the "timer" function to keep operating, to allow another dialog box to pop up before the first is closed? or just pop later ones up after the first is closed? If you don't want multiple dialog boxes, one task is all you need. Depending on the details of the windowing toolkit (Gtk? Motif?), you may be able to popup multiple dialog boxes from one task. Keeping things simple is the key to keeping them reliable. Using more tasks than you really need is _not_ keeping it simple. One confusion I often see is between "task" and "module". You definitely should have one _package_ for reading the text file, one package for poping up dialogs, and one package for managing the timer. That is _not_ the same as needing three _tasks_. > Thanks in advance. You're welcome. -- -- Stephe