[JDEV] Managing the Desktop with Jabber

[dave at dave.tj]

I actually envision a LISP module that integrates nicely with emacs,
that can keep track of everything and alert me whenever anything
interesting happens.

 - Dave


Michael Bauer wrote:
> 
> 
> So, here's a left-field question (with apolgies to our non-US friends that 
> don't get the baseball analogy):
>   
> How do you manage your desktop with a Jabber client?  I mean you're 
> cruising along, editing files, checking email, surfing sites - and then 
> you start to engage in a half-dozen Jabber conversations.  The problem is 
> you've got two classes of activities going on at the same time.  The 
> first class is primarily pro-active.  You make the decision what to edit, 
> what to read, what to surf when.  The whole tiled windows desktop 
> environment works pretty well here.  I now have my editor on top.  Soon, 
> I'll put my email on top to send this.  Everything is well and good.  I am 
> at peace.
> 
> The second class of activities is re-active.  I am in the middle of 
> editing something hoping that Diz will get back to me soon so i can finish 
> my conversation with him.  In this context, I can't be pro-active with 
> this activity.  I'm waiting on an event - an IM from diz.  I could set the 
> Jabber client to come to the top when message received - but that pretty 
> rapidly drives me insane.  I don't want this to happen when I get a 
> message from just any old person, like Jer.  :)  And there's no way I'm 
> going to dynamically specify when I want to be so interrupted from a 
> particular person (I may not want to talk to diz immediately all the 
> time).  So, I've taken to just carving out a few lines on the top quarter 
> of my screen with my Jabber client (Jarl on Linux).  This way I can glance 
> up expectantly waiting for a conversation to go "red" indicating that I 
> have a message from anyone).  I lose some of real estate this way but it's 
> mostly OK - except I have to resize the window to chat and size it back.
> 
> I'm interested in how others do this.  Of course, it's going to be client 
> dependent.  I'd love to know how others have envisioned solutions to this 
> problem too.  Transparent pop-up windows would be pretty sweet.  Iconified 
> individual conversations maybe too.  Just curious.  
> 
> -- 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Michael Bauer        me at michaelbauer.com       http://www.michaelbauer.com
> 
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