Greetings,

This option would be a tremendous addition to gnome-terminal: ring a bell after a long, time-consuming command has been processed. That would allow the user the opportunity to issue a ./configure or a "make" without always having to go back and check the program's status.

* Elaboration

Instead of a audible bell, a visual notification like the taskbar flashing (as in xchat-gnome) would also work wonders. The appropriate GTK+ call:
http://library.gnome.org/devel/gtk/2.24/GtkWindow.html#gtk-window-set-urgency-hint

Rather than using a timeout, I would preferably just check if the window still has the focus, or that particular tab is selected, after a command has been processed.

* Work around

I understand it may not be possible to know whether a command has been run and done. Would it be possible though to check the process table every 30 seconds or so?

Just keep a boolean indicating whether the shell has any children running, and next time you check, notify the user if the command terminated and the window doesn't have focus. Obviously many people would not want to "pay" for this feature, but many would appreciate such a feature I'm sure: so, if it could be provided as an option it would be fantastic!

Thanks!