Counts the start, blocks the way blockMode says, counts the return.

beats advances every pass of the poll loop, so a spec can tell whether the function is still executing. The timeout only stops a failed spec from leaving a thread running for the rest of the suite.

blockMode exists because the app's Tasks do not all block alike, and the question a relaunch raises is what the OLD run does, not just whether a new one starts: pollLoop - wait() on a port in a loop, re-reading a field each pass (the original probe) waitOnce - ONE long wait() on a port, which is what fetchJson does inside the pool sleepOnce - sleep(), which parks the thread without a port at all

seq is read TWICE: once at entry and once after the block. A caller that stops the task, writes a new seq and relaunches is doing what every app site does with its input field (m.searchTask.query = query then launch). If the relaunch is ignored but the old run survives its block, endSeq shows the run finishing against the NEW input — which looks correct on screen and hides the ignored launch.