[wataru]

I wrote the following simple script for use as a sleep timer for iTunes:

Code:
tell application "iTunes"
	set answer to text returned of (display dialog "Enter the desired delay in minutes" default answer "10")
	delay (answer * 60)
	playpause
end tell

The only problem is that when I run it through the script menu in iTunes, the iTunes interface freezes for the duration of the delay. Is there any way I can make this run "in the background" or something, so that I can still control iTunes during the countdown?

Try putting all that stuff outside of the tell block.

set answer to text returned of ...
delay (answer * 60)
tell application "iTunes" to playpause


I don't know if this will work, but try it out and let us know.

[wataru]

Nope, that didn't do it. Good idea, though.

[larkost]

The wrong answer is a variant on what hayesk said, separate the tell blocks so you are not telling iTunes to delay (a method that actively eats processor cycles, by the way):

Code:
tell application "iTunes"
	play
end tell

delay 5

tell application "iTunes"
	stop
end tell

The proper way of doing something like this is to use "on idle" methods. There is quite a bit of documentation out there on this once you know that magic phrase, so I will leave you to it.