eggtimer

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys, os, time
import Tkinter

# Callback for key events:
def bye(x) :
  sys.exit(0)

def Usage() :
  print "Usage:", sys.argv[0], "minutes message"
  sys.exit(1)

def showAlert(message) :
  # This is supposed to show a dialog, but tkMessageBox doesn't exist:
  # tkMessageBox.showwarning("hello", message)

  # Try to beep a bit, even though that doesn't work on recent kernels:
  print ""
  print message

  root = Tkinter.Tk()

  button = Tkinter.Button(root, text=message,
                          bg="red", activebackground="red",
                          fg="white", activeforeground="white",
                          font=("Sans", 40, "bold"),
                          command=quit)

  # Make sure the window is at least as big as the screen:
  button.pack(ipadx=root.winfo_screenwidth()/2,
              ipady=root.winfo_screenheight()/2)

  # Apparently we can't bind key events to a button, only to the root:
  root.bind("<Key>", bye)

  root.mainloop()

# main: read the runtime arguments.
try :
  sleeptime = int(sys.argv[1]) * 60
except ValueError, e:
  Usage()

if len(sys.argv) > 2 :
  message = ' '.join(sys.argv[2:])
else :
  message = "Wake up!"

print "Sleeping for", sleeptime, "seconds with message:", message

# Now try to fork and give control back to the terminal:
# Unfortunately, tkinter apparently refuses to run from the child process,
# for reasons that don't seem to be documented anywhere.
# try: 
#   pid = os.fork() 
#   if pid > 0:
#     # exit first parent
#     sys.exit(0) 
# except OSError, e: 
#  print >>sys.stderr, "fork #1 failed: %d (%s)" % (e.errno, e.strerror) 

time.sleep(sleeptime)

showAlert(message)