On Tue, Nov 15, 2005 at 09:35:58PM -0800, Brian Klock scratched on the wall:
> This is a serious problem. Even without Dashboard's devmode enabled, the
> widget environment still exhibits the same behavior. I see a lot of
> widgets out there that are probably using AppleScript in some way.
In general, good widget design calls for *total* inactivity when the
widget is not displayed. Logically there is no need for a widget to
update its display if nobody is looking at it. Most widgets that
have some type of periodic update disable that update when the widget
layer is hidden. I realize that isn't always going to be true for
devmode but, as already stated by others, devmode (useful or not) is
not really an intended "user mode."
I also realize that-- while a very strong suggestion that I think all
widget developers should take very seriously-- the goal of inactivity
is not written in stone (and Apple could have chosen to do that).
There are some cases (like widgets that record, compute, and display
histories) that require periodic updates regardless of if the data is
currently displayed or not. I assume you've given this some thought
and the fundamental goal of your widget predicates constant updates.
If not, you might want to consider if you really need to run your
updates when the widget is not being displayed. It takes a few extra
JavaScript calls to turn your timers on and off and trigger an
immediate update upon display, but it isn't that big of a deal. If
your widget only calls out when the dashboard is up, the whole F11
thing doesn't matter.
If possible, that would be the easiest and cleanest solution.
-j
--
Jay A. Kreibich | CommTech, Emrg Net Tech Svcs
email@hidden | Campus IT & Edu Svcs
<http://www.uiuc.edu/~jak> | University of Illinois at U/C
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