14 May 2001
xstatuspanel is a collection of system status monitors for Linux, all bundled up into one X11 application. It is similar in intent to gkrellm, although the goals are different: xstatuspanel was designed to be a lightweight process in terms of memory usage.
This application window is divided into a vertical stack of subwindows, each representing a piece of information about the state of your computer. The subwindows are, from the top down:
Shown on this page are two views of xstatuspanel, the one on the left view showing the calendar popup.
There is also experimental support for checking for new mail on an IMAP server or the local mail spool.
A configuration file is available to customize the panel order.
xstatuspanel only supports Linux at this time. That's not to say that it won't ever support multiple platforms, but it isn't currently in the plans. My goal with xstatuspanel was to make the jump from Java to C++; more of a learning experience than a cross platform application.
If you are interested in a more general solution, check out gkrellm. If you are memory constrained, or don't use GTK, give xstatuspanel a try. xstatuspanel only uses Xlib for a memory footprint of about a third of what gkrellm requires.
Regarding porting: most of the architecture dependent stuff is isolated in one or two methods for each type of monitor, though, so it isn't out of the realm of possibility to port to a new operating system. I currently only have access to Linux machines, though, so unless I have the opportunity to work with Solaris or something, I probably won't have access to do any porting myself. If you are interested in porting xstatuspanel, let me know.
Also, check the project homepage hosted at SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/xstatuspanel/.
| Author: Rob McMullen <robm at users.sourceforge.net> 14 May 2001 |