[comp.sys.mac.misc] After Dimmer...screen saver ?'s

fry@math.harvard.edu (David Fry) (02/07/91)

For several years, my screen saver has been Dimmer.  It's perfect: it 
sits quitely waiting for inactivity, then physically dims the screen 
by changing the video card, and then sits quitely again.  It never 
interferes with downloads or eats up processor time bouncing pictures 
around the screen, and it doesn't draw attention to itself.  
Admittedly, it only works on machines with Color Quickdraw.

Alas, I find Dimmer doesn't quite work with my System 7 beta (it can 
be forced to dim by moving the mouse to the "dim now" spot, but 
inactivity doesn't dim it).  Fearing it won't be updating, I'm 
considering a switch to After Dark or Pyro.  I used an early version 
of Pyro, but it would stop downloads and used up too much processor 
time if I was doing an extended calculation.

What's the current state of affairs?  Does After Dark do better?  Can 
you estimate how much processor time its modules use?  Can you adjust 
(or rewrite) a module to use less time?

Thanks for your suggestions...

David Fry                               fry@math.harvard.EDU
Department of Mathematics               fry@huma1.bitnet
Harvard University                      ...!harvard!huma1!fry
Cambridge, MA  02138