set cursor to busy

[william humphrey]

Thanks Hugh

I always wished that there was some LiveCode example stacks which showed
proper design and procedure for different platforms. Like you said, a
documentation so that people like me wouldn't be doing it wrong for years
and years.

And I use Parallels and run Windows lots of time so I thought that colored
spinning beachball just meant I was running Windows.


On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 3:08 PM, FlexibleLearning.com <
admin at flexiblelearning.com> wrote:

> The 'busy' cursor is a BLACK AND WHITE spinning beachball and part of
> LiveCode so it is cross platform. It is hungry and eats cycles because it
> has to re-draw every time it changes.
>
> The COLORED spinning beachball on a Mac means the app is hanging (i.e. not
> a
> good thing). Do not use this cursor on ANY platform.
>
> The 'watch' cursor displays from OS system resources I believe, so is
> platform specific. It looks like a watch on a Mac and an egg-timer on
> Windows. It eats virtually nothing.
>
> Point is, don't use an icon that means the wrong thing. As Scott said, use
> the documentation (sometimes called RTFM), make sure you know your delivery
> platform, and Google is your friend.
>
> My suggestion stands. Use the watch cursor for short processes; use a
> progress bar updated every nth iteration for lengthy processes. If you
> really want to show a change in the cursor for EVERY repeat iteration, use
> the black and white 'busy' beachball cursor, but be aware that it will slow
> your routine down.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Hugh Senior
> FLCo
>
>
> william humphrey  wrote:
>
> Thanks Scott. that helps. On a Window's platform does set cursor to busy
> look like a spinning watch or is it still a MacOS 8 beach ball?
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 7:25 AM, Scott Rossi <scott at tactilemedia.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I probably added to the confusion here, so I'll try to explain again.
> >
> > The *colored* beachball cursor (drawn by OS X) is the one that means an
> > app is not responding.  This is different than the black and white busy
> > cursor that you can use in LiveCode, which can be used to indicate an
> > application is, well, busy doing something.  The colored cursor is the
> one
> > you want to avoid.
> >
> > The difference between the LiveCode watch and busy cursors is the busy
> > cursor has multiple frames which advance each time you set the cursor.
> > See "cursor" in the dictionary.
> >
> > Hope this clears things up.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Scott Rossi
> > Creative Director
> > Tactile Media, UX/UI Design
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 10/9/13 3:27 AM, "William Humphrey" <shoreagent at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > >Can you explain what is different between setting cursor to busy instead
> > >of setting cursor to watch? Why does setting cursor to bust "eat
> cycles"?
> > >
> > >This is now a second reason not to use setting cursor to busy. The first
> > >being that it tells the user something is seriously wrong (I didn't know
> > >this one).  I assume that seeing the watch just means wait a moment
> > >something is going on that is supposed to take time. (I see the watch
> > >cursor all the time when I run windows stuff).
> > >
> > >Brevity and errors in this email probably the result of being sent by a
> > >mobile device.
> > >
> > >> On Oct 9, 2013, at 2:50 AM, "FlexibleLearning.com"
> > >><admin at FlexibleLearning.com> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Setting the cursor to busy eats cycles and adds a time-overhead.
> > >>
> > >> Personal preference is to simply 'set the cursor to watch' for any
> > >>actity
> > >> lasting up to a few seconds, or a progress bar updated every nth
> > >>iteration
> > >> (such as n mod 100 =0) for longer routines. For indeterminate activity
> > >> length, I use an animated gif such as a barber's pole.
> > >>
> > >> Short answer is I haven't used 'busy' in a long time.
> > >>
> > >> 2p/2c
> > >>
> > >> Hugh Senior
> > >> FLCo
>
>
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