Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!montnaro From: montnaro@spyder.crd.ge.com (Skip Montanaro) Newsgroups: comp.human-factors Subject: Progress/busy indicators (Was Audio feedback from GUI's) Message-ID: Date: 13 Jun 91 14:35:49 GMT References: <1991Jun12.171211.2716@cs.umn.edu> <31228@hydra.gatech.EDU> <1991Jun12.202741.16629@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1991Jun12.215523.7379@cs.umn.edu> Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com Reply-To: montanaro@crdgw1.ge.com (Skip Montanaro) Organization: GE Corporate Research & Development, Schenectady, NY Lines: 18 In-reply-to: brsmith@cs.umn.edu's message of 12 Jun 91 21:55:23 GMT In article <1991Jun12.215523.7379@cs.umn.edu> brsmith@cs.umn.edu (Brian R. Smith) writes: Sort ("riffle-riffle" - paper shuffling, only for as long as sorting takes. Obviously, there are a LOT of possibilities for cpu-bound tasks, since the user is probably bored to death waiting anyway...) That reminds me of the old Three Rivers Perqs. When they were busy, the cursor would change into a bee and fly around the screen. Of course, in a multiprocessing environment grabbing the cursor would get annoying if you had other things to do. If I remember correctly, Perqs also had progress meters that indicated the relative amount of work completed. (Didn't one or more of the Xerox workstations also?) -- Skip (montanaro@crdgw1.ge.com)