Since I can't find a way to comment on the bug that I opened and was closed
almost immediately <
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2999543&group_id=192583&atid=941981>,
I thought I would post this issue to the Skim users list to see if anyone
else has noticed it and/or has a workaround. Maybe I was wrong to classify
this as a bug (as hofman seems to think), but I didn't know where else to
put it—this didn't seem like a feature request when I originally posted it.

To summarize, I recently bought a new MacBook Pro (released April 2010 with
the i5 and i7 processors; relevant to the following issues is that they
switch between built-in and discrete graphics cards on-the-fly, and noticed
that using the Search PDF function (Option-Command-F) in Skim causes the
more powerful discrete card to become active. Also, the discrete card also
stays active after both closing the search pane and closing the PDF. Having
the discrete card on uses more battery, which is not something that I want
to happen on a laptop when just reading a PDF.

The source of the graphics card switch is any use of Core Animation (CA); in
Skim, CA is used to display the graphical transition to the search results
pane after using the Search PDF option. Other people have noticed the switch
with apps that use CA for small UI features <
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11449395>. It may be a
bug on Apple's end that the more powerful graphics card *always* gets
invoked when CA is used (I have sent feedback to Apple regarding this), and
maybe they will fix it for cases where the discrete card isn't really needed
like in Skim's case, but maybe they won't.

To get to my point, I don't know much about creating GUIs and using CA in OS
X, but I wonder 1) if it is really necessary for Skim to display the search
pane transition using CA, and 2) if it is possible to make using CA
transitions an option. I'm not being angry here, by the way. If it is
imperative for Skim to use CA for the transition and making CA transitions
optional is not a possibility, that's fine, I just want to know.

Thanks for developing such a great PDF reader/annotater. I hope to keep
using it while running on my laptop's battery!

Best,
Matt
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