  A directly measurable correlation length may be defined for systems having a
two-step relaxation, based on the geometric properties of density profile that
remains after averaging out the fast motion. We argue that the length diverges
if and when the slow timescale diverges, whatever the microscopic mechanism at
the origin of the slowing down. Measuring the length amounts to determining
explicitly the complexity from the observed particle configurations. One may
compute in the same way the Renyi complexities K_q, their relative behavior for
different q characterizes the mechanism underlying the transition. In
particular, the 'Random First Order' scenario predicts that in the glass phase
K_q=0 for q>x, and K_q>0 for q<x, with x the Parisi parameter. The hypothesis
of a nonequilibrium effective temperature may also be directly tested directly
from configurations.
