From: alsaggaf@athena.mit.edu (M. Saggaf)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
Subject: Announcing Babaya 1.00b
Date: 14 Apr 1993 04:45:20 GMT
Approved: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu (Matt Welsh)
Message-ID: <1qg4t0$cf0@fitz.TC.Cornell.EDU>

I've put the first release of Babaya on the major linux ftp sites:
tsx-11, sunsite, and nic.funet.fi. Following the convention of Seyon,
the ``b'' in the version name means BETA. The README file follows. 

Enjoy!

/Muhammad M. Saggaf       
 alsaggaf@athena.mit.edu  

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Q: What is Babaya?

A: Babaya is a simple session manager for the X Window System. Babaya
   takes care of starting the user's custom applications when logging
   in or starting the server, and of ending all applications
   gracefully when the user desires to log out or exit the server.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: What does Babaya do for me?

A: Two things:
   
   1) It launches the user's custom applications listed in Babayas's
      startup file.

   2) It takes care of ending all applications gracefully when the
      user wants to logout or exit the server. This is much better
      than abruptly killing all active application by exitting the
      server without giving those applications the chance to exit
      gracefully. The latter method is ``too violent'' in my opinion
      and often leaves residual process still active even after the
      server is shut down.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How does Babaya work?

A: When you start Babaya, it first launches all applications listed in
   its startup file, ~/.babaya/startup, which has the same format as
   any sh shell script (actually it *is* a shell script). Babaya put
   error message encountered while processing the startup file in the
   file ~/.babaya/startup-errors.

   Afterwards, Babaya creates a logout button at the buttom right
   corner of the screen. When the user clicks that button WITH THE
   RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON (to avoid potential mishapes), Babaya first
   sends all applications the WM_DELETE_WINDOW message. Applications
   participating the WM_DELETE_WINDOW protocol (all decent ones do,
   including Babaya of course!) respond to that message by exiting
   gracefully (e.g. in Seyon it's as if the user clicked the Exit
   button on its command center). 

   Babaya then waits ten seconds for applications to clean up and
   exit. Afterwards, it kills all remaining applications (those not
   participating in the above protocol) and exits. At that time, the
   user would be logged out and returned to the xdm login dialog (if
   xdm is used), or the server will exit and the user will return to
   the shell (if the server is started manually by startx, ..etc.).

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How do I build and install Babaya?

A: Simple. To build it, just type:

           xmkmf
           make install

   Then put the line 

            Babaya &

   somewhere in your .xinitrc file (if you start the server manually)
   or .xsession file (if you use xdm). You can also launch Babaya in
   the foreground (i.e. without the ampersand ``&'') as the last line
   in your .xinirc or .xsession files.

   If you want Babaya to automatically launch custom applications for
   you (e.g. xterm, the window manager, ..etc.), put them in the file
   ~/.babaya/startup. An example startup file is included.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
            
Q: Who is the author of Babaya? How can I contact him (for thanks and
   praise, not flame :->).

A: Muhammad M. Saggaf
   e-mail:     alsaggaf@mit.edu
   Snail Mail: Muhammad Saggaf
               Box 9863
               Dhahran 31311
               SAUDI ARABIA

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