Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Tip 53
Stop Apps from Auto-Quitting
You might have noticed an odd thing while using OS X: if you haven't used
it for a while and it has no open files, an app might seem to quit in the
background without asking you. If actual fact, the app enters a quasi-sleep
mode: as far as the user is concerned, it appears to have stopped running
but is still held in memory.
Sometimes apps quit themselves almost instantly: if I close the Messages
window, for example, the program usually quits shortly afterward.
Apple calls this feature
automatic termination
4
if you find it annoying by
issuing a secret command. Open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the
Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal
within the
UTILITIES
folder) and type the following:
DEFAULTS WRITE -G NSDISABLEAUTOMATICTERMINATION -BOOL TRUE
Then log out and back in again for the changes to take effect.
To reactivate automatic pruning of inactive applications later, again open a
Terminal window, and type the following, before logging out and back in again
for the changes to take effect:
DEFAULTS DELETE -G NSDISABLEAUTOMATICTERMINATION
Tip 54
Turn Off “Smooth Scrolling”
You might not have noticed, but when you click the scrollbar to move down
or up a page in an application or hit the
PAGE UP
/
PAGE DOWN
key on full-sized
keyboards, the scroll to the new page is animated. This might seem a little
slow, laggy, or not quite as responsive as you'd like—it's something that
4.
Apple explains the reasoning behind automatic termination of apps here:
