[Gpe-list] gpe-calendar and native alarm functionality on Nokia internet tablets

[Fyodor]

Hi.  I recently bought a Nokia n810 internet tablet and am delighted
by the hardware and being able to carry around a fully functional
Linux system with me at all times!  I was disappointed that the device
doesn't come with decent PIM software, but I have installed the OS2008
version of GPE which Graham released last month.  Overall it is
working pretty well and I hope to migrate away from carrying my Palm
Pilot everywhere.  But I have noticed some issues with the event alarm
functionality of gpe-calendar:

o The alarm does not go off unless the power is on and the calendar
  app is running (it can be minimized).  The "clock" app which ships
  with the device has simple alarm functionality which can wake the
  device and works even when clock is not running.

o The alarm sound tone is pretty lound and grating (sounds like a
  siren) and I haven't found a way to configure it yet.  I can
  probably figure it out by digging into the internals, but it would
  be nice if the application shipped with a few sounds we could choose
  from in the GUI.  The default "clock" alarm does this.  A great
  feature of the default "clock" alarms is that some of them start out
  really quiet and then raise the volume gradually.  So if you are in
  a meeting or movie theatre, you can turn it off quickly without
  disturbing everyone around you.

o When the gpe alarm does start blaring, it does not move to the
  forground of the screen.  So when the device goes off, I need to
  fish the device out of my pocket, unlock the touchscreen, and fish
  around in the apps menu to find the alarms dialogue so I can dismiss
  the alarm.  When the native "clock" app has an alarm, it pops up a
  dialogue to the front which can be dismissed even without unlocking
  the screen.  There is a nice "snooze" feature on the dialogue box
  too.

I'm not any sort of Maemo expert, but I think the reason the "clock"
alarm works so well is that it uses the native alarm interface on the
device.  This interface looks pretty simple, and it is documented
(along with some example programs) at:

http://maemo.org/development/documentation/how-tos/4-x/using_alarm_interface.html

Is there any hope that gpe-calendar will be updated to use this
mechanism instead?

Thanks,
Fyodor

PS: Sorry if you get thise twice.  I sent it Saturday, but it doesn't
    appear in the archives so I'm resending.