Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu From: sanjay@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Sanjay Keshava) Newsgroups: comp.human-factors Subject: Re: Progress/busy indicators (Was Audio feedback from GUI's) Message-ID: <50503@ut-emx.uucp> Date: 14 Jun 91 01:03:04 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@ut-emx.uucp Reply-To: sanjay@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Sanjay Keshava) Organization: UT Austin B-School, High-Tech Capitalism in the making Lines: 37 In article montanaro@crdgw1.ge.com (Skip Montanaro) writes: > In article <1991Jun12.215523.7379@cs.umn.edu> brsmith@cs.umn.edu (Brian R. Smith) writes: > > 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) I've used several of the Xerox workstations but don't remember seeing any one displaying the relative amount of work completed. Mainly, because, the OS usually doesn't know how much work needs to be done. Only the application does. Here's what I remember seeing: Alto - coffe cup appears when mail is being retrieved - hourglass with shifting sand appears when cpu is busy - toggling checkered flag during ftp Now, the Alto I used didn't do multi-tasking. The Dandelion (8010) and Daybreak (6085) running either the Xerox Development Environment or STAR or ViewPoint had other indicators which were similar, but these were multi-tasking machines, so the cpu couldn't be monopolized (usually). One hack I liked was the cpu/disk usage indicator. It displayed a bar graph similar to audio peak level meters, showing how busy the cpu was with applications. -- Sanjay Keshava Student in the UT Austin Graduate School of Business ->|<- Class of July 1991, Information Systems & Finance Greetings to fellow Anteaters ('84), Trojans ('87), and Longhorns ('91). sanjay@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu | ...!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!sanjay