Re: application watcher / idle detector
Re: application watcher / idle detector
- Subject: Re: application watcher / idle detector
- From: Emmanuel <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 22:09:18 +0100
At 19:56 +0100 17/01/01, Stephen Gross wrote:
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Problem: A lot of users at my workplace forget to quit applications.
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Possible solution: An applescript that monitors idle applications and
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closes them after a set time.
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I know how to write a script to do some of that solution, but not all of
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it. In particular, if anyone knows how to:
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(1) Monitor an application's idle time, or
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(2) Stay idle for awhile, then do its idle-checking routine,
As for question (2) there is a variety of answers. I have seen many people
recommending iDo Scheduler - that I don't know. A standard applet could
also do the job, the "idle" handler is designed for that.
Point (1) is a bit trickier I think. I wish you find a really satisfactory
solution, but I will be astonished if you do.
The design of your solution will depend strongly on your assumptions
concerning the following points. If you can elaborate about them, we shall
probably help you easily.
- do you suppose that you know in advance all applications involved - I
mean, the exhaustive list of the applications you will want to quit ?
- if this is the case, what is the level of scriptability of the apps ? A
table of the scriptability levels is given on AppleScript's home page.
- if it is not the case, will you be satisfied with a solution addressing
only the applications sufficiently scriptable ?
- can your users accept a small, yet detectable, slowdown of their machines ?
I am nothing of a specialist, but I think that the way OSX handles events
would make it much simpler and safer than in the Classic environment to
notify any app's "quit" event to any other app.
Emmanuel