I need to easily and quickly check if indexing needs to be done. I have been looking around and have
$process = Mage::getSingleton('index/indexer')->getProcessById();
or
$process = Mage::getSingleton('index/indexer')->getProcessByCode(<process_code>);
Process Name ID Code
Product Attributes 1 catalog_product_attribute
Product Prices 2 catalog_product_price
Catalog URL Rewrites 3 catalog_url
Product Flat Data 4 catalog_product_flat
Category Flat Data 5 catalog_category_flat
Category Products 6 catalog_category_product
Catalog Search Index 7 catalogsearch_stock
Stock Status 8 cataloginventory_stock
Tag Aggregation Data 9 tag_summary
but I need to just quickly get the status. Is there a better way?