Crazy idea: PermittedHours in .desktop files

[marnanel]

It would be rather useful if there was a PermittedHours field in the .desktop file spec. It would list the hours during which the program could be run. That's not just for kids, it's also for me, in the manner of LeechBlock:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Some Program I Use For Work
Comment=But let's say I don't want to be tempted to spend all evening working on it
Exec=foo
PermittedHours=9-17

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Aisleriot
Comment=And I definitely shouldn't be playing this during work hours
Exec=aisleriot
PermittedHours=0-9,17-23

I wonder how best we could do per-user settings, though.

My idea is to prevent launching the program during those hours. What would happen if the system saw the program was still running when the time had expired, I'm not sure. Maybe nothing, or maybe it would put up a notification telling me I have five minutes to quit or the process gets it.

I know nanny does some of this, but I wonder whether it's generally something that should exist in application launchers.

What do you think? Worth suggesting to them?

Comments

does it make sense in the .desktop file?

[(Anonymous)]

I've definitely wished for something like Leechblock for the desktop a times, but I'm not sure that doing it in the desktop file makes the most sense. First, that would complicate the process of getting it set compared to just having configuration somewhere since configuring it would come down to "menu editing" with user overrides of files in /usr/share/applications. Second, I'm not sure that it's obvious there is exactly one thing we'd want - allowed hours - it seems like something you'd want to play with. I don't want to be forbidden to use xchat during work hours, but maybe I'd like to be able to say that I can only spend 1 hour total in the day in xchat.

What I was idly thinking of was a GNOME 3 shell extension - that would allow a lot of flexibility - it could allow the program to be running but just not allow switching to it, etc. And it could just read config for the user that would refer to application ID (that is, the name of the desktop file).

- Owen

Re: does it make sense in the .desktop file?

[marnanel]

I like your take on it. Yes, that's a much better idea.

*goes off and thinks about it*

[uzytkownik.myopenid.com]

IMHO - not.

1. What with irregular schedule? Teachers, students etc. would have to do it per day rather then per hour.
2. What with holidays, weekends, illnesses?
3. People usually don't play and work in the same place - even if you have laptop they usually commute.

[reddragdiva]

It really doesn't sound like an appropriate place to impose an implementation requirement for such a specialised function.

(Though I'm not sure, off the top of my head, where would be.)

What is the implementation of this idea that is sufficiently flexible for a thousand special cases but has the absolute minimum imposition of requirements on the system underneath?

The launcher should ask the calendar

[(Anonymous)]

I would love to see the launcher ask the calendar for this information. You would enter your working schedule and any apps in the Games category are not shown during that time. It could show a notification if you started playing before work. For this to work well, you enter vacation in the calendar as well.

The case of a work-specific application or work inbox requires configuration. You need to choose the name of the app and the work account, and similar behaviour can apply.

[(Anonymous)]

Desktop files don't really seem like the place to enforce policy. As you say, it would make per-user settings clunky at best, if not impossible. It probably also wouldn't be all that hard for an inventive child to work around.

ZcUIJDoCBPsN

[(Anonymous)]

GzP3n2 52. "The road will be overcome by that person, who goes." I wish you never stopped and be creative - forever..!