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

[(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.