Re: Detecting non-responsive app

FROM : Drew McCormack
DATE : Sat Aug 26 22:25:56 2006

On 26/08/2006, at 9:33 PM, Bill Bumgarner wrote:

> On Aug 25, 2006, at 10:54 PM, Drew McCormack wrote:

>> Why do I need this? I have an app that wants to do things in the 
>> user's 'dead time' (not the computers), and this is one time I 
>> thought the user could be sitting and waiting. (If you have any 
>> other times that the user is likely to be waiting, I welcome all 
>> suggestions.)

>
> That won't work.
>
> First, the SPOD'ing app may not be the foreground app.

I intend only to check the active app.

> Secondly, well engineered apps should never SPOD.

Right, but there are plenty of bad apps in this regard. A good 
example is Finder, particularly when it comes to networking.

> If they do SPOD, it may indicate that there is a more serious 
> underlying problem, often network resource related (Network 
> filesystems being unavailable immediately and painfully comes to 
> mind).

Right.

>
> If you want your app to run at the least intrusive times, have a 
> look at the "nice" man page.  The kernel has facilities for 
> adjusting the scheduling of an app.

My intention is not to harvest cycles while another app is busy, but 
to harvest the users attention while the UI is non-responsive.

Drew