In Activity Monitor, there are several categories of windowless processes that have a couple of different naming schemes. Some examples include:
(For anyone unfamiliar with the name+“d” processes, those are daemons.)
The Question
Are there defining characteristics between Agents, Helpers, and Daemons?
Technically speaking, an agent is a user-oriented background process that is normally unseen but can present a GUI at need, whereas a daemon is a full background process that never shows any interface. Helper generally refers to a background process that is launched by/with a different app that handles some particular function of that app. for instance, GrowlHelperApp is a background app that handles applescript requests for Growl, iTunes Helper (I think) is a monitoring app that watches for media being mounted and notifies iTunes, blued handles bluetooth devices and never talks to users, while iChatAgent (I believe) monitors iChat connections and notifies users about changes.
The terms are used loosely - you're not going to be arrested if you call a daemon and agent or vice-versa - but that's the general rubric.
Perfect! Exactly the description I was hoping for. ☺
Difference between “helper”, “agent”, “daemon”?
