So I finally broke down and subscribed to gnustep-dev! I recently (Wednesday) started working on an implementation of Apple's ScreenSaver framework so that I can get more acquainted with GNUstep programming. I figured this framework would be fairly easy to do, which it is, for most part. I decided to split it in 3 parts, which I think is what I'd have to do anyway: the framework, a screen saver tool (which I called gssaver), and a preference module to configure it.
So far I've managed to complete implementing the ScreenSaverView class and the SS* functions, but have no idea how to work the ScreenSaverDefaults class. I most definitely will need some help implementing ScreenSaverDefaults, but I'm not too worried about it now since the default screen saver is a blank screen and doesn't need any configuration.
I still haven't done anything in the preference module front. Since all of the programming I've done has been at work and my everyday computer I haven't had access to a GNUstep installation, and haven't been able to use Gorm to create the interface. I figured I would build the module by hand, but gave up on that idea since I thought I could learn more using Gorm. For now, I've kind of put off creating the preference module till I'm done with the tool.
The tool, gssaver, is turning out to be a little more complicated than I initially thought. What I figured I'd do with it is make it an NSApplication but build it as a tool (not really sure if this would work). So I've implemented a simple delegate class for now which: creates a black window the size of the screen; loads the defaults; finds the screen saver; adds a ScreenSaverView subview; orders it to front; and calls the ScreenSaverView's -startAnimation method (in that order).
My questions:
1) I still haven't figured out how I'm going to count how many minutes it's been since the last even, and much less how to even find out if events have happened. Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this?
2) I also have no idea how to figure if, once the screen saver is on, how to stop if when something happens (mouse move, key stroke, mouse click). I've looked at the docs for NSView and there doesn't seem to be any methods that would make this easy. What can I do here?
3) Once the preference module is completed and working, I'll need to have gssaver check the defaults after the preferences change, is there anyway I can send it a message asking it to check the defaults fromt the preference module?
4) Lastly, I'll need a lot of help creating ScreenSaverDefaults, but only later. I've check NSUserDefaults' code and I'm more confused now than I was when I started out. I figured for this, the best thing would be to create a new file (ScreenSaverDefaults) under the Defaults directory. NSUserDefaults, however, seems to be very picky about there being a process running and writing to that process.
After it's all said and done I'd like to add this to GNUstep as I think it would make more sense being distributed by it (much like SystemPreferences and it's NSPreferencePane implementation). I already have a copyright assignment, so it shouldn't be a problem.
Any comments and/or suggestions would be appreciated.