Display the time left of a started timer in the left-click menu

For a started timer, the time left (do-something (15m47s left)) could be more informative than the whole duration (do-something (30m0s)).

Currently one can inspect the time left by hovering over the bar, which is not a very responsive approach.

added 2. Feature 5. Panel Menu / Widget labels

Add the time left to the menu doesn't sound like a good idea in one regard, as you refreshing the menu every second would be problematic, but having the remaining time as a static value when opening the menu on the 'stop timer' line, does seems like it could be of value.

as you refreshing the menu every second would be problematic

Do you mean the frequency of 1 update per second, or the existence of any asynchronous update of the menu at all after its creation, is problematic?

Should have been 'as refreshing', but yes if the menu is opened, I don't believe its possible to edit its contents and even if it were, there would likely be constant flickering when it did.

It seems working seamlessly on my dying laptop.

#include <gtk/gtk.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

#define N 30
GtkWidget *items[N];

int reload_menu(gpointer data) {
	static char buf[30];
	for (int i=0; i<N; ++i) {
		sprintf(buf, "%d: %d", i, time(NULL));
		gtk_menu_item_set_label(GTK_MENU_ITEM(items[i]), buf);
	}
	return TRUE;
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {

  gtk_init(&argc, &argv);

  GtkWidget *window = gtk_window_new(GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
  GtkWidget *vbox = gtk_box_new(GTK_ORIENTATION_VERTICAL, 0);
  gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(window), vbox);
  GtkWidget *menubar = gtk_menu_bar_new();
  gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(vbox), menubar, FALSE, FALSE, 0);
  GtkWidget *fileMi = gtk_menu_item_new_with_label("File");
  gtk_menu_shell_append(GTK_MENU_SHELL(menubar), fileMi);
  GtkWidget *fileMenu = gtk_menu_new();
  gtk_menu_item_set_submenu(GTK_MENU_ITEM(fileMi), fileMenu);

  for (int i=0; i<N; ++i) {
	  items[i] = gtk_menu_item_new_with_label("placeholder");
	  gtk_menu_shell_append(GTK_MENU_SHELL(fileMenu), items[i]);
  }

  reload_menu(NULL);
  g_timeout_add(1000, reload_menu, NULL);

  g_signal_connect(G_OBJECT(window), "destroy", G_CALLBACK(gtk_main_quit), NULL);
  gtk_widget_show_all(window);

  gtk_main();

  return 0;
}

xfce-timer-2021-03-15_11.03.54.mkv

You are welcome to fork the project and submit a patch for review. If you don't have fork access, ask for permission on #xfce-dev IRC or the mailing list.

mentioned in merge request !9 (closed)