IdleTime is a system extension provided by UserLand for use in conjunction with Frontier (the freeware version is called Aretha). It's primary purpose in life is to install a system filter which keeps track of user activity so that scripts can perform intelligent testing on this activity. It does this by installing a jGNEFilter (for those who I just lost -- that's a user level event filter) which monitors user activity and a Gestalt selector (the MacOS uses a system level 'interrogation' mechanism called "Gestalt" so that various pieces of code can determine the capabilities of a system dynamically; we simply extend that concept here) which does the reporting.

This version is a very basic rewrite of the original extension written by Doug Baron, primarily to work around some crashing problems people were seeing on newer machines and prepare the extension for the next go 'round with the MacOS (Copland).

Reporting Problems:

Please report all problems to me (directly) at the address below. While UserLand has gracefully allowed me to use their original source base, any errors in this extension are mine, and mine alone. Thanks for your help in testing this new version and thanks to Userland for the great set of tools we get to use it with.

Disclaimers:

The usual disclaimers apply. This is free, experiment-ware. If you lose something, don't blame me.

Contact Info:

Dave Ely <ely@dijas.com>

Sunday, October 1, 1995