Re: Looking for a command... - Kommander?

["Bryan J.Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

mike808@users.sourceforge.net wrote:
> KDE users have a nice GUI dialog with a timeout feature.
> kdialog --help
> There is also whiptail which looks like a curses-based implementation 
> of kdialog.

Not to technically cross you, but for anal-level accuracy (I feel I 
must, slap me for it if you wish):
- whiptail is a slang-based utility.
- dialog is a (n)curses-based utility.

I won't step in the middle of the slang v. ncurses debate.
But just know whiptail is a slang-based replacement for dialog which is 
(n)curses-based.
I don't know what Kdialog uses, if anything (i.e., it's own 
implementation?).

Also of note for more GTK+/GNOME users is Newt.
Newt is a library for building programs that can either use slang 
(terminal)  or GTK+ (X-terminal).
Red Hat likes to use Python/Newt for Anaconda and user utilities so they 
work and launch from the same binary in either a terminal or when a 
X-server is available.

I don't know if there is a similar library for slang/ncurses and Qt, 
although if there was, it wouldn't surprise me if Kdialog leverages it 
so you can get both.
I'm largely ignorant on Qt/KDE developments myself (being a 
self-admitted, partially recovering GNOME Bigot).

That all aside, isn't the semi-new KDE  "Kommander" a RAD (Rapid 
Application Development) environment for building shell (and other?) 
scripts for Qt/KDE?
I thought it could make DCOP and other object calls to the KDE system as 
well?
I'll send a link when I get home tonight (I'm on PST).
That might be what you're looking for, or at least a tool that can help 
automate things from the KDE desktop (if that's what you want to do).

> The proper way to do what you want from the shell directly is via signals
> and use of the 'trap' command and 'wait' commands with forking your alarm.
> In Perl, this is trivial to hook into SIGALRM.

Perl *always* makes advanced shell operations trival.
But so does Python too (depending on how you compare them).

One of these years I'm going to get enough time to complete some of the 
Python/Newt programs I have been planning.
More recently, I've largely just used Java as a "wrapper" to "shell out" 
to a program, track it's PIDs and then set events and create methods 
(typically prompts or automatic kills) to handle such needs.

But my choice of Java is based on the ease of getting IT departments to 
install it, especially when I need to launch and track Windows scripts.
--
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org
Currently Mobile

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