Best way to set up an idle timer

[Devin Asay]

Thanks for the great responses. I knew in my heart I really shouldn't 
be using an idle handler, but couldn't figure out how to make a send .. 
in message work without trapping every conceivable mouse and keyboard 
event. Special thanks to Sarah and Edwin for putting me on to using a 
front script to handle mouseMove and rawKeyDown messages. My HyperCard 
roots were blinding me to this little gem of a concept--the ability to 
insert a script into the front of all message paths.  Anyway, here is 
what I came up with. I included code that would provide a reasonable 
user experience--it wouldn't just rudely log them out with no 
explanation, and it gives a chance to re-enter a password if they typed 
it wrong the first time.

Does this seem like a reasonable approach?:

========================start script sample==========================
-- first of all put into an otherwise unused script:
on mouseMove
   send "resetLogout" to stack "chinpr"
   pass mouseMove
end mouseMove

on rawKeyDown
   send "resetLogout" to stack "chinpr"
   pass rawKeyDown
end rawKeyDown

-- then I put into my stack script:

on openStack
   -- start timeout counter
   insert the script of image "P&Rbg1.jpg" into front
   send "logoutQuery" to stack "chinpr" in 5 * 60 seconds -- or whatever 
time you want
end openStack

on logoutQuery
   if the userPIN of this stack is not empty then -- i.e., if the user 
is logged in
     answer "A appropriate prompt here." with "Logout" or "Enter PIN..."
     if it is "Enter PIN..." then -- (user chose to continue)
       repeat forever -- or could put a limit here
         ask information "Enter your PIN to continue the test."
         if it is the userPIN of this stack then
           resetLogout
           exit repeat
         else
           answer information "Incorrect PIN. Try Again or Logout?" with 
"Logout" or "Try Again"
           if it is "Logout" then
             go card "menu" of stack "chinpr"
             logout
             exit repeat
           end if
         end if
       end repeat
       exit logoutquery
     else if it is "Logout" then -- (user chose to log out)
       go card "menu" of stack "chinpr"
       logout
       exit logoutQuery
     end if
   end if
end logoutQuery

on resetLogout
   cancel item 1 of last line of the pendingMessages
   send "logoutQuery" to stack "chinpr" in 5 * 60 seconds
end resetLogout

========================end script sample==========================

Devin Asay
Humanities Technology and Research Support Center
Brigham Young University