It would help analysing problems, if wr had "leds" that would blink when 
activity is detected, and when the one-second timer fires.

Another nice debugging feature would be a separate window, showing a graph of 
how many activity events are detected.

For example: As a function of time, the amount of events per 100 ms??

Would look nice in a task bar / Gnome panel.

I think the proposed functionality is way overkill for a debug version. So, we
can either WONTFIX this bug, or turn it into a feature suggestion for the
non-debug version. In the latter case, what would make sense? IMHO, the
one-second timer firing is not useful at all.

wp has a led that is toggled every second, and a led that lights up when active.

Both are useful in understanding wp behaviour. The same would go for wr.
although I admit that activity monitoring has very much improved since I filed
this bug. Therefore, this feature is now somewhat lower on my wish list.

> wp has a led that is toggled every second,

I really don't like this. If every app would have leds to show that they are up
and running, my system tray would look like a christmas tree.

> a led that lights up when active.

That may be useful. Perhaps also a led that indicates when a timer is overdue.

I have no idea of how to visualize this though, sheep and leds don't go well
together, especially in a 16x16 pixel area.

You are contradicting yourself. First you're telling us it would look nice, then
that it would be undoable.

I don't quite agree. I think you would be capable to show a running sheep when
active and a immobile one when resting. You might even throw in a sleeping sheep.

Anyway, putting this stuf in the system tray was not my idea. Wp has something
similar (called "animatied icon" - except that it always moves), which is so
annoying I disabled it. I'll probably do the same for wr, once you implement it.

Putting a feature like this in the main window is much less obtrusive, and only
shows you the information if you want to (i.e. if you put the main window in the
foreground). This would still be my preferred way to go.

IMHO, this is unnecessary bloat. WONTFIX? => +1 !