PullProcess is a small utility that will pull a selected process (APPL) to the foreground at a user-specified time interval. PullProcess was written because of performance problems on my multiline TeleFinder BBS. TeleFinder 3.x consists of several small applications that talk to each other via appleevents. If one of the BBS node servers is in the foreground, the performance on the other node servers suffers. The answer is to have one of the other TeleFinder mini-applications, such as the CallerLog, always be in the foreground.
This problem could be taken care of by properly alphabetizing the aliases to the applications that TeleFinder needs within the Startup Items folder. However, my BBS also runs Tabby, the FIDONet mailer for the Macintosh. Every time a Tabby event occurs, all of the Tabby modules launch into the foreground, finally re-launching the BBS into the foreground. In addition, Tabby is a CPU hog if it is in the foreground. Beating Tabby into submission by forcing it into the background greatly improves the operation of the other BBS nodes during Tabby events.
Thus arose the need for PullProcess. I have it set to scan the process list every 10 seconds and pull the TeleFinder CallerLog application to the foreground.
Installation
PullProcess can be placed anywhere you want it, including on locked volumes. The Startup volume, however, must be unlocked, since PullProcess makes freqent trips to the Preferences folder. Put an alias to PullProcess into your Startup Items folder.
Configuration
Launch PullProcess and select "Select Process…" under the Options menu. A StandardFile dialog box (Open…) comes up. Select the application you want in the foreground (I chose Callerlog).
Then choose "Set Time Delay…" from the Options menu and select the time interval PullProcess will wait before forcing your selected application to the front. The resulting dialog box looks like the following figure.
Finally, you can optionally define a series of "Exceptions"; applications that, while running, disable PullProcess automatically. This lets you define that, say, when you are logged on locally with TeleFinder/ User, then Callerlog won't pop to the front. Also, certain Tabby modules don't eat up much CPU time, so it's just as well to run them in the foreground. Examples of this are Export and Import. The following figure illustrates the Exceptions dialog box.
There is a "Pulling Enabled" command in the Options menu that lets you "turn off" the program, so that you aren't driven up the wall with Callerlog popping to the front while you are working on the BBS locally. The shaded rectangle on the status window is green (or gray on B&W systems) when pulling is enabled, as shown on the following figure. The status window shows the number of seconds before the chosen application is pulled to the foreground, and also shows the name of the application selected to be pulled in between the "<< >>".
The shaded rectangle on the Status window is red (or dark gray on B&W systems) when pulling is disabled, as shown in the following figure.
Limitations
PullProcess requires System 7. I figured this wouldn't be a problem since TeleFinder 3.x also requires System 7. A limitation of PullProcess is that it can only pull applications to the front, and not other processes such as the Finder. The process list is scanned by Creator, so changing versions of software shouldn't effect things.
Legal Stuff
PullProcess was written in MPW Pascal, with some help from Prototyper.
