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Feature request #58: REQUEST: Automatically launch Synergy when iTunes is launched

Kind feature request
Product Synergy
When
Status closed
Reporter Kerry Echols
Tags no tags

Description

I would like to have the option of having Synergy launch only when I launch iTunes. My current options are to launch at login or to deselect that and manually start Synergy from the preference panel pane each time I need it. It seems there should be a middle ground. No one needs Synergy on if iTunes is not running, do they?

Thanks.

Kerry Echols Birmingham, Alabama

Comments

  1. Greg Hurrell

    Thanks very much for submitting the request.

    This is a chicken and egg problem.

    I cannot modify iTunes, because I don't work for Apple, so that means to implement the feature you're requesting I would need a separate process that runs all the time to watch for iTunes launch events. When iTunes launches, that third process will launch Synergy. Once Synergy is running, it can watch iTunes itself for termination events -- at that point the third process isn't needed -- and then Synergy can quit itself when iTunes exits. But then we need the third process again.

    The is no way to obtain what you're asking for without running an extra process. And I presume what you're trying to avoid is running extra processes.

    For Synergy Advance I have already written a background daemon that does exactly what you are asking for. It sits in the background using effectively zero memory and zero CPU resources. It only wakes up when the kernel tells it that an application was launched, then it goes back to sleep. It is very resource efficient. It is still a third process though; there's no avoiding it.

    In Synergy Classic, did you know that you can at least make it invisible when iTunes is not running? If you are using Synergy 1.5b or later and iTunes 4.7 or later, Synergy will use basically zero CPU when iTunes is not running. To make it invisible, you go into the Menu Bar tab of the preferences. Check "Display controls only while iTunes is running", and make sure that the option for showing the Global Menu "Only when Menu Bar control buttons are hidden" is turned off. In this way Synergy won't take up any space in your menu bar when iTunes isn't running. (Note that this feature isn't working 100% in version 1.5b with iTunes 4.7 -- see bug #48 -- but this is fixed in my internal builds here and you'll get your hands on it when I release 1.5 final, very soon.)

    Unfortunately the background daemon I mention above will have to remain a Synergy Advance-only feature, because it depends on APIs new in Panther, and Synergy Classic must run on Jaguar. So I have to mark this one as WONTFIX.

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