[Psi-devel] Usability.

[Andrew Kohlsmith]

> My English is poor, my Englis is poor - it's all because of that. I'm
> explaining purpose of this feature for a last time. :)

Actually your English is very good.

> Let's think about what for me means "I'm online". For me - this state
> means: "I'm doing something at my computer". Taking a look at the screen or
> clicking on amarok playlist is *not* being online and I don't want appear
> in notifications on my friend's desktop everytime I'm doing it. That is why
> I would like Psi to turn me back "online" after two minutes of doing
> something at my computer. It simplest way I could imagine to track
> availability. Call this telepathy if you want. Yes - I can set "away" while
> I'm leaving and than "online" when I consider myself being online. Thinking
> same way I can say: "why do I need any jabber client - I can send raw xml
> with telnet". Look. I like Psi, but I don't wish to click it more than it's
> needed. The less I have to work with it - the more I like it. This is the
> usability.

Basically what you are asking for is an activity timer -- The current way Psi 
works is that when ANY mouse/keyboard activity is noticed it comes out of 
auto-away.  What you want is if any mouse/keyboard activity is present, it 
must be present for 'x' minutes before the auto-away is cancelled.  I don't 
think this is too much to ask for, but it's not as simple as simply saying 
"keyboard/mouse activity for x minutes" -- keyboard and mouse activity, even 
when you're at the computer, is not constant.  You'd need a pair of timers.  
One timer to count the two minutes or whatever to come out of auto-away, and 
another to cancel that timer because the keyboard/mouse activity was only 
there briefly.

Basically the logic would work something like this:

if(keyboard or mouse activty && auto_away)
  {
  cancel_auto_away_timer=active;
  kbmouseactivity_timer=30; // seconds
  }

cancel_auto_away_timer_alarm()
{
 auto_away=false;
}

kbmouseactivity_timer_alarm()
{
 // the kb/mouse activity timer ran out,
 // there was more than 30s between activity
 // so cancel the auto-away cancel.  :-)

 cancel_auto_away_timer=120; // seconds
}

-A.