How hard could it be? A login manager in BASH

As I have previously elaborated, I hat the Gnome Login Manager. To summarise: it is bulky and slow.

I am currently using SLim as my login manager, for it is fast and very customisable. It however lacks a few features I want:

1. Render of the date and time
2. An easy way to receive a list of configured commands to for example, turn the computer off ( from now written as 'power commands' )
3. UI elements to allow the user to turn the computer off without having to first login

I am out of luck however - I know of no other X login manager that does these things. So I am now taking the GNU approach to things: writing my own.

A login manager should be a simple affair. I plan to write mine using nothing but shell scripts, for a login manager really does nothing but ask for credentials and accept/execute power related commands.

Basically it will comprise of the following things:

• An one line high aterm running a getty that executes the user's .xinitrc
• Xclock to show the time
• A named pipe to accept power commands
• Several screensavers in borderless windows ( nameley 'molecule' and 'substrate' ) to make it look cool
• Some way of providing power options on screen ( yet to decide on how to do this ).

Expect to see it soon!

Regards, William