New applications?

Hi all,

How do we feel about adding new applications/plugins? I ask because I have
some I would like to add:

 * kbdd settings application - allows creating kbdd "profiles" and switching
between them

 * kbdd control applet - companion to above that allows you to quickly switch
between external keyboards or disable kbdd and re-enable the serial console

 * owner info security plugin - picks up owner information from the user's
business card and displays it at authentication time. Allows control over the
fields shown and makes it easy to specify when the information is shown (ie,
either as the first in the plugin chain or only if authentication by a
previous plugin fails). Obviously this competes with the built in user
information feature, but I feel it does a better job.

Marex also has an applet for switching CPU frequency scaling levels that I am
sure he is keen to get in:

http://marex-hnd.blogspot.com/2007/07/opie-cpufreq-applet.html

Cheers,
Paul
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[Erik Hovland]

On Thu, Aug 02, 2007 at 11:12:26PM +1200, Paul Eggleton wrote:
> How do we feel about adding new applications/plugins? I ask because I have
> some I would like to add:

I don't mind new apps. As long as they bring features that didn't exist
before. If something else already does the job and is in tree I would
like to see some sort of explanation as to why it isn't the right thing.

>  * kbdd settings application - allows creating kbdd "profiles" and switching
> between them
>
>  * kbdd control applet - companion to above that allows you to quickly switch
> between external keyboards or disable kbdd and re-enable the serial console

As far as these things go, how long will they actually be appropriate?
Does the 2.6 kernel even support kbdd?

>  * owner info security plugin - picks up owner information from the user's
> business card and displays it at authentication time. Allows control over the
> fields shown and makes it easy to specify when the information is shown (ie,
> either as the first in the plugin chain or only if authentication by a
> previous plugin fails). Obviously this competes with the built in user
> information feature, but I feel it does a better job.

I don't know about this one. Does it get in the way of having different
avatars?

> Marex also has an applet for switching CPU frequency scaling levels that I am
> sure he is keen to get in:
>
> http://marex-hnd.blogspot.com/2007/07/opie-cpufreq-applet.html

If you have tried it and it works for you, it probably is a good thing.

Having been critical, I should add that I do not know the problem space
very well. Don't let me slow you down.

E

--
Erik Hovland
mail: erik@...
web: http://hovland.org/
PGP/GPG public key available on request

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Erik Hovland wrote:
> I don't mind new apps. As long as they bring features that didn't exist
> before. If something else already does the job and is in tree I would
> like to see some sort of explanation as to why it isn't the right thing.

Fair enough.

> As far as these things go, how long will they actually be appropriate?
> Does the 2.6 kernel even support kbdd?

Well, kbdd works via uinput and standard serial devices, so absolutely.
IIRC there is even some 2.6-specific handling in kbdd right now (for
device name changes I think). IMHO, kbdd is a lot better for handling the
multitude of external keyboards and similar input devices because it is
much easier to maintain than specific kernel drivers - that's the whole
reason it was created.

>>  * owner info security plugin
>>...
> I don't know about this one. Does it get in the way of having different
> avatars?

By different avatars do you mean different users? I don't think the
security plugin system has any specific handling for that - it just works
off the currently logged in user - the idea being you just turn off your
device and when it is switched back on there are some authentication
challenges that have to be met before you can use the system.

For non-authenticated users ideally you want to tell them whose device it
is, in case it has been lost. At the moment there is already a feature
(optional, IIRC) that lets you show the owner info after a set number of
failures. Unfortunately it discloses almost all of the business card info
which is not always desirable, and I also feel that it is shown too late -
it should really be shown as the first screen or as the second screen
after the first authentication attempt fails. My plugin addresses those
two shortcomings. You can also show an additional message eg. "substantial
reward for safe return".

>> Marex also has an applet for switching CPU frequency scaling levels that
>> I am sure he is keen to get in:
>>
>> http://marex-hnd.blogspot.com/2007/07/opie-cpufreq-applet.html
>
> If you have tried it and it works for you, it probably is a good thing.

Well, I admit that I haven't, but I plan to. I would also like to see CPU
frequency scaling integrated with light & power settings so that if you
want it to, it can peg back the CPU speed when on batteries to save power.

> Having been critical, I should add that I do not know the problem space
> very well. Don't let me slow you down.

Well, seeking criticism is the very reason I asked :) I am fully aware of
how many applications have been added and then left to stagnate, I don't
want that to happen here - so obviously I want any apps that are added to
be both useful and in a usable state.

Cheers,
Paul
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