>> but the tray utility appears almost instantly, it would be neat not to
>>  display the red rabbit while the node is loading but the red rabbit
>> with  the grean arrow on it.
>>
>> Also a text tip "freenet is loading, please wait..." would prevent
>> ultra-newbies to immediately try and click on it.
>
> These are good suggestions.  But the problem is that the freenet.log
> never actually says WHEN the node is ready.  It says "Starting
> interfaces" but even then the interfaces aren't actually startED.
> They're just startING.  The node would have to say "All interfaces are
> now started.  Node is ready." or something similar in order for this to
> be really useful.  And I'm not even sure that's possible
> (you'd have to ask someone who speaks Java).

Heh.
Freenet.exe (the rabbit icon program) doesn't even look at freenet.log, in
fact writing code to parse freenet.log would've been a nightmare (which is
why I didn't do that!)
Far easier would be for the rabbit to effectively poll port 8888 with TCP
connections until it looks like it gets HTTP headers in response to HTTP
requests.  Icons for this have already been completed and have been for
ages in fact (probably over a ago, check the archives ... I've just been
too lazy to finish the job) - check
http://www.beermex.com/@spc/freenet/icons

On second thoughts, that icon isn't particularly clear ... maybe I'll make
the "Freenet Is Running (No Gateway)" icon have a black outline instead of
a red outline.

I think the source for freenet.exe even already contains appropriate
tooltips.  The one thing it doesn't actually do is try connecting to port
8888.  It's not difficult to code, I just haven't got round to doing it.
Sounds like more and more people think it's a good idea so I'll get my
finger out my ass and do it (er, next week, cos this weekend is so bad for
me).

I'd like to propose the following behaviour before I actually finish coding
this:

a)  When the rabbit icon loads, initially it will be in the "no gateway"
mode.
b)  Until a successful TCP connection can be made to port 8888, with HTTP
header conversations going on, the rabbit icon will remain as "no
gateway".  Furthermore, double clicking the icon will NOT load the Freenet
Web Interface.  Port 8888 will be tested once every twenty seconds.
c)  When a successful HTTP conversation with port 8888 is completed, the
icon will change to the standard red rabbit.  Double clicking the icon will
launch the Freenet Web Interface.
d)  Port 8888 will then be tested once every ten minutes, as well as a
further test every time the rabbit is double clicked, to confirm that it is
still running.

Sound reasonable?

I made a decision early on NOT to say "Freenet Is Loading" because
originally freenet was perfectly usable without FProxy even being loaded.
Is this still the case though, or is port 8888 now an implicit part of
freenet?  Maybe what I might do is have two icons

1.  Black outline, "Freenet Is Loading", which remains until a FNP
connection can be made to fred.
2.  Red outline, black arrow (as shown on @spc/freenet/icons), "Freenet Is
Running - Web Interface Not Available", which remains until a successful
HTTP conversation on port 8888.



> In my experience, I'll often get "connection refused" on port 8888 for
> several seconds after "Starting interfaces" appears in the log. It can
> be very frustrating.

True - another good reason not to parse freenet.log !  :-)

d



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