harrow@exodus.dec.com (Jeff Harrow, NCSE BXB1-2/E02 DTN=293-5128) (09/06/87)
I love Pyro (the screen blanker that comes with Suitcase). It is automatically invoked, shows a beautiful (in color on the Mac II!) fireworks display when "blanked", and is user-configurable. A great job. However (knew that was coming, didn't you?) it's one failing, in my opinion, is that things do not continue in the background while the screen is blanked. Now that's a bit of a misleading statement, since "real" background jobs, like print spoolers, DO continue, but compute- bound tasks, like long EXCEL calculations, stop. Although I don't do very long compute-bound tasks, I do perform a lot of long downloading. Although Pyro is smart enough to watch the modem port and NOT blank until its activity stops, this is a prime time at which I would like the screen to blank (or, how about making that user-configurable, in case I wanted to watch the download?). Pyro is so much everything that I want in a screen blanker, it's a shame to have one thing outstanding (does it work with MultiFinder?). Steve, any plans to beef it up? Jeff Harrow DEC (617)264-5128