Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!garnett
From: garnett@cs.utexas.edu (John William Garnett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Attaching sounds to actions?
Message-ID: <1053@tokio.cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 23 Jan 91 04:54:47 GMT
References: <985@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU>
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Texas at Austin
Lines: 51

In article <985@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU> barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) writes:
>Is there any way to attach sounds to system functions like
>logout, killing a process, deleting a file, etc?
>
>I know Preferences can be used to set the system beep, but I'd like
>finer control. (My machines name is Arnold---as in Schwarzenegger---which
>opens up the possibility for a great many amusing voice annotations
>for these functions. For example, on shutdown, I'd like it to
>say ``I'll be back'', from the movie Terminator, and when I kill 
>a process, I'd like it to take the quote from Commando:``Remember when
>I said I'd kill you last? I lied.'')
>

I think that you must be kidding, but just in case you aren't you could

1) write csh or sh shell scripts that first play a sound and then invoke
   a corresponding command.  For example, you could write a shell script
   named "killer" that contained the following lines:

   kill $*
   sndplay /LocalLibrary/Sounds/killer.snd

   where killer.snd is a sound file that says whatever you want it to
   say (e.g. "Remember when I...").  Make sure to change killer to
   be executable (chmod +x killer).  You should also put killer in
   a directory that is in your path.

2) write a NeXTstep front end to the utilities (kill, rm, etc.) and
   specify the appropriate sound files using inspector on the button
   that causes a given application to be executed.  It might actually
   be useful to write this type of frontend to kill (who likes using
   ps to find a process id in order to kill something, much better
   to scroll through a list and then mouse select the process).

3) To attach a soundfile to system shutdown, you can move /etc/halt to
   /etc/halt.bin and then write a shell script like the following:

   sndplay /LocalLibrary/Sounds/shutdown.snd
   exec /etc/halt.bin -e -p

   Again, make sure that the /etc/halt script is executable.  I haven't
   actually tried this - you may have to make /etc/halt a compiled C
   program and use the C routines analagous to sndplay and exec
   (the SND* routines and execl()) depending upon how the windowserver
   invokes /etc/halt.

-- 
John Garnett
                              University of Texas at Austin
garnett@cs.utexas.edu         Department of Computer Science
                              Austin, Texas