And as another sentence said

>  Is there a better way to do it? 

JS doesn't spawn a process and doesn't depend on AppleScript or OS or browser at all.

You can also use JS in a hidden iframe checking in short frequency if something changed, before conditionally reloading the parent frame. (Hence no "flickering")

But that's becoming OT here, Google is your friend.

I know newer technologies like WebSockets allow to push content, but IIRC this will need a server keeping the connection alive.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_technology for various options

No flicker for me.

page.html

<iframe src="loader.html"
        style='display:none'
        >

</iframe>

<h1>parent</h1>


<script>

  var version=9;
  document.writeln("Version "+version+" loaded at "+ Date());

</script>
[download]

loader.html

<h3>loader</h3>

<script>
setTimeout(
    function () {
        window.location.reload(true)
    }, 1000);


var date=Date();
var version=9;
document.writeln(date);

if (parent.version<version){
    parent.location.reload(true);
}

</script>
[download]

Though in the next step,I would try to get rid of the version number in the source and try to put the load state into the #searchstring

YMMV

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
Je suis Charlie!}

update

Works with FF and IE.

For local files not with Chrome, because of same origin policy with file:// protocol

Possible Workarounds:

• change security settings

  Is also creating flicker in Chrome tab bar

  Possible Workarounds:

• use AJAX XML-HTTP-request request instead of iframe