<AWT Dev> Review request #2: 6863566 (Java should support the freedesktop.org startup notification specification)

[Damjan Jovanovic]

On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 11:31 AM, Dmitry Cherepanov
<Dmitry.Cherepanov at sun.com> wrote:
> Just a small suggestion.
>
> It might make sense to clarify whether this fix covers the UI tools (like
> jconsole) or not. So far, the report says that
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Copy this text into a .desktop file in your ~/Desktop directory:
>
> [Desktop Entry]
> Name=Startup notification test
> Type=Application
> Exec=jconsole
> StartupNotify=true
>
> jconsole can be replaced by any Java application that opens a window.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> According this description, the fix is supposed to work OK with the UI
> tools.
>
> At the same time, the java process doesn't inherit the env variable
> (DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID) of the UI process. As a result, the newly introduced
> method will not remove the startup notification. So, my suggestion is to
> explicitly clarify this behaviour in the bug report.
>
> The fix itself looks fine for me.

Startup notifications have to start and stop. They don't automatically
start when you double-click on an executable file from your file
manager or run an executable from a terminal. They can only start when
you run a .desktop file that has the "StartupNotify=true" line.

If startup notifications don't start, then there is no real problem -
it just looks bad because you know you started the application but you
aren't getting any feedback that it's starting (busy mouse cursor,
"Starting ..." on the task bar).

If startup notifications do start, then it looks really bad if they
don't stop - the application starts in a separate task bar tab, while
the "Starting..." tab and the busy mouse cursor continue for quite
some time. My patch addresses this case, by stopping them when the
first window shows.

The .desktop files for tools like jconsole currently have no
"StartupNotify=..." line, so startup notifications are disabled even
with my patch. I asked we add "StartupNotify=true" to those files and
provided a patch, but my request was denied, see the OpenJDK bug
(https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/show_bug.cgi?id=100094) for details.

> Thanks,
> Dmitry
>
> Anthony Petrov wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Please review the latest version of the fix contributed by Damjan
>> Jovanovic:
>>
>> RFE: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/show_bug.cgi?id=100094
>> There you can also find some latest comments regarding the fix.
>>
>> webrev:
>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~anthony/7-24-startupNotify-6863566.2/
>>
>> The patch no longer unsets the environment variable, and hence does not
>> need core-libs review.
>>
>> --
>> best regards,
>> Anthony
>>
>
>

Thank you
Damjan Jovanovic