Simon 5 is coming soon!
Simon version 5 is currently in beta testing. It is a massive update, introducing a much-requested feature: syncing the Simon data between multiple Macs, plus a Simon Status service, a Link Checker filter, improved Find filter, iMessage and Speak Error notifiers, a new app icon, and much more.
Important: please note that Simon 5 requires a minimum of macOS 10.12 (Sierra), and will be a paid upgrade from Simon 4 after the beta. Purchasers since September 1, 2020 automatically get a version 5 license (that also works in previous versions).
Re: Simon App Health testing (Redux 2)
Hi John,
I still haven't got around to splitting Simon up into multiple components, as mentioned in those previous threads. But I am inching closer to that: my Time Out 2 app does use that approach, so I should be able to use that technique in a future version of Simon. The Simon app is an order of magnitude more complex than Time Out, so I consider Time Out 2 a smaller-scale trial run for this technique.
In the meantime, I'm wondering if there is anything else that could be done. Simon does use distributed notifications, that another app could monitor. So one option is I could write a small standalone app to do so, though I'm not sure if that'd have any benefit, since it'd still be on the same machine.
Re: Simon App Health testing (Redux 2)
Oh, one thought for a way to do this now — a Simon instance on another machine could monitor a report output by Simon (either uploaded to a website, or via local web sharing).
The test on that other machine could use filters to look at the report date, and result in a failure if that doesn't change. And have the report update it self more frequently than the test.
Simple and feasible now.