When a Classic Helix application is put into the background while a sequence is running, the sequence pauses after the current step completes. This was done because of a long-standing rule in the Mac OS that a background application should never open a window.
Sequences in OS X Helix currently continue running even when Helix is in the background. This is great for most applications, but there are some situations where it is important to pause between steps.
The purpose of this poll was to gather opinion about this change. The primary question was: will this new behavior cause problems for you?
As the survey results show, this behavior is rarely used to the programmer’s advantage. In fact, most people were either totally unaware that Classic Helix pause between sequence steps when in the background, or find it annoying that it does!
By default, a sequence in OS X Helix does not pause between steps when it is in the background. We will leave it this way for now, with the intent of introducing it as a sequence option in a future revision.
This survey ran July 26 – October 17, 2007.
66 users participated in this survey.
| The Questions… | < Less Vital … … … More Vital > |
| Do you current have a process that relies on the fact that sequences pause when Helix is in the background? |
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| Have you ever taken advantage of the fact that sequences pause when Helix is in the background? |
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| Should we reintroduce this feature in the future as a global Helix preference? |
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| Should we reintroduce this feature in the future as an optional setting in each sequence? |
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It is our intention to deliver a preliminary Helix Engine (and Client) as soon as we have met the needs of a reasonable portion of our user base. The feature set included in that preliminary release will be determined in part by the results of this survey.