This is just an idea for how to implement idle_timer which isn't yet feasible...

This is just an idea for how to implement idle_timer which isn't yet feasible
(I haven't even tried to compile this code because as soon as you pull in X11
headers, you get a bunch of name clashes), but it is good to get the approach
reviewed first so I know if it's worth fixing things standing in its way.

The code is similar to what is done in Pidgin, the GTK-based IM client, which
is what I used for reference.  There doesn't seem to be a good GTK API to use
for finding the idle time, although there are idle-time callbacks.

BUG=2183

[dsh, 2008-09-12 17:43:07]

This is NOT what I intend to commit.  I haven't even tried to compile it (it's
probably not even C++ right now).  It requires including an X11 header that
introduces some name clashes (like "Time"), so I would need to get that cleaned
up before actually taking a real stab at this.  I would also implement the UI
message pump first, so it will be a little while before I seriously code this. 
That said, I want to get the approach reviewed so I don't waste my time doing
that other stuff if I don't need to.

The approach is simply to use libxss to find the idle time, which is the
approach used by Pidgin, and what I found googling.  GTK does not appear to have
an API or I would use it.  The best I've found is
gdk_x11_display_get_user_time(), but the meaning of the timestamp is
undocumented, and information I received on the GTK IRC channel suggest it is
not valid for use in arithmetic.  I don't even know what unit of time it's in.

Feel free to flame my style, but keep in mind I didn't put much effort into
following style guides for what is more or less pseudocode at this point.

Thanks for the review.

[darin (slow to review), 2009-02-18 16:54:49]

cleaning up my review queue: is this patch still relevant?