ExecCommand (activity)

Summary

This utility is targeted at experienced Linux/Unix users who hope to feel more at home with the XO. On launch, this activity either launches a predefined Unix command (you have to edit the script contained in the activity), or starts an graphical dialog and queries the user for what command to run. Useful for starting vncviewer or xmms.

Current Implementation

You can find the current version at [1]. This version starts a simple xdialog that requests for a command to run. Also, there is a modified version that just starts XMMS. [2]

Justification for implementation

Looking through the Sugarizing page, it seems fairly clear that getting an Activity to simply start a non-activity application cleanly is non-trivial. Many attempts end up leaving a "loading" icon for the activity, or have multiple icons displayed as running activities, or other things.

Native X applications on the XO simply show as a little circle icon, but a lot of work has gone into customizing this behavior for specific X applications.

Personally, I couldn't care less what the icon looks like in the running activities disc, just so long as I can easily start my desired app.

I realized a simple solution would be to create an Activity that simply starts, forks a new app in the process, and then closes itself, cleaning up all of the Activity mess left behind from a rapid exit.

Implementation

import os
# get the exec script started right away.
os.system("bin/exec-script.sh &")

from sugar.activity import activity
import logging, sys, gtk

class ExecActivity(activity.Activity):

   def __init__(self, handle):
       activity.Activity.__init__(self, handle)

       self.set_title('Executing...')

       # this strategy doesn't seem to work if there's no toolbox
       toolbox = activity.ActivityToolbox(self)
       self.set_toolbox(toolbox)
       toolbox.show()

       # close, removing the unuseful icon from the activities disc

activity.Activity.close(self)

In retrospect, os.fork/execv would have been a better choice than os.system.