[Xfc-dev] Hello everybody!

[Linus Ruth]

Greetings fellow programmers and tinkerers!  I found this board the other day, and saw that there was discussion recently of starting some Xfce specific coding projects.  I, too, would like to get my hands dirty under the hood of Xfce...

I'm not the greatest C++ programmer, but I have Stroustrup's book and a willingness to learn.  I've dabbled in lots of programming languages, and know a thing or two about GUI design.  I write database interface code for a living, and take a few college classes on the side.

I use Xfce at home and at work.  I've been a fan of it for several years.  Recently I spearheaded a project to design Linux based web kiosks for use by our customers, and chose Xfce as the window manager for its ease of customization and high degree of reliability.  It's such a piece of cake to lock down an Xfce desktop!

I've never written a native Xfce application.  I understand that it's predominantly based on GTK+; I've done a bit with GTK#.  Hopefully the two have more similarities than differences.  At any rate, I may drop by and pick your brains from time to time.  I just wanted to introduce myself and sing the praises of Xfce before issuing my first distress call.

The initial project I'd like to tackle is the creation of a panel application for monitoring network interfaces.  Something similar to the network status icons in the system tray of a Windows desktop.  I may also consider creating a dial-up Internet connection manager which ties in to the traffic monitor.  I finally ditched my dial-up connection for good--I hope--about a month ago.  However, I used to work for an ISP providing technical support to users throughout several states.  I have a feeling that most of the citizens of this wonderful planet still hook up to the Internet via clunky 28.8 or 56Kbps analog connections.  I'm a pretty forgiving guy, especially of glitches in free software, but from years of observation I'd say that most of the people who interact with computers are not.  Weird or unpredictable interfaces immensely frustrate most, and many quickly give up trying to resolve or work around their application issues and resort to calling for help.  This is completely
 understandable, but it is totally avoidable.  I've seen a few dial-up management solutions for Linux, and they all fall into the clunky kludge category.  For these reasons I feel that there is still a need for a native Xfce dial-up management utility.  The need for a native, streamlined network interface monitor seems pretty obvious.

I've rambled quite enough for tonight, so I'll sign off now.  I look forward to our future discussions of Xfce.

G'Night,

Linus Ruth

			
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