Metacity knows when a program is loaded, but hasn’t yet started, by using the startup notification specification. In GNOME bug 114384, the suggestion is raised that when Metacity opens a new program (say, from a keybinding) it should also tell itself that the program is loading in the same way.
This seems entirely reasonable.
Photo © Janet McKnight, cc-by.
The idea sounds reasonable to me, especially if it lets me hit my ‘launch gnome-terminal’ keybinding, then switch to a new workspace and have it appear on the original.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out how ‘launching applications’ relates to ‘box of badgers’.