Appnope – Enhance macOS App Performance

Appnope is a Python library that enables developers to prevent their macOS applications from being paused when they are running in the background. This is particularly useful for applications that need to perform continuous processing or maintenance tasks. Below, we will discuss some of the useful APIs provided by the Appnope library along with code snippets to help you get started. We will also demonstrate an example app that makes use of these APIs.

Installation

pip install appnope

API Examples

Checking If App Nap is Available

import appnope

if appnope.nap_available():
    print("App Nap is available on this system.")

Enabling App Nap

import appnope

appnope.nap_enable()

Disabling App Nap

import appnope

appnope.nap_disable()

Checking App Nap Status

import appnope

status = appnope.nap_is_disabled()
print(f"App Nap is {'disabled' if status else 'enabled'}.")

Example Application

Let’s create an example where we disable App Nap while performing a long-running calculation.

import time
import appnope

def long_running_calculation():
    appnope.nap_disable()
    try:
        print("Calculation started...")
        time.sleep(10)  # Simulating a long-running task with sleep
        print("Calculation completed.")
    finally:
        appnope.nap_enable()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    long_running_calculation()

In the above example, we disable App Nap before starting a long-running calculation and re-enable it afterwards. This ensures that our application remains active and is not paused by macOS during the calculation.

Conclusion

Using the Appnope library can help improve the performance of macOS applications that require steady background processing. By understanding and utilizing the provided APIs, developers can ensure their applications remain responsive and efficient.

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