[dev] Culling all the way down

From: Tobias Bengfort <tobias.bengfort_AT_posteo.de>
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2020 08:21:45 +0200

Hi,

I am currently creating a curses application that is updated
independently of user input. Think of something like `top`. I realized
that the process is using the same amount of CPU whether it is currently
visible or not. That bothers me. I would prefer if my app got notified
when its visibility changes so it can stop rendering (I think this is
called culling).

For this to work it would need to be supported in several places:

- Window managers could set _NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN
- Terminal emulators and multiplexers could set the terminal size to 0,0
- Applications need to actually use that information

The only project I could find that seems to do something like this is
mutter.

So I am wondering: Is this even worth the effort? Have I missed any
prior art?

thanks
tobias
Received on Sun Sep 06 2020 - 08:21:45 CEST