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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!mit-amt!bc
From: bc@mit-amt.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Animated watch cursor.
Message-ID: <655@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 28-Jan-87 09:09:02 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-amt.655
Posted: Wed Jan 28 09:09:02 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 30-Jan-87 06:22:05 EST
References: <7488@decwrl.DEC.COM> <603@runx.OZ> <607@runx.OZ> <176@trwspf.UUCP>
Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 36
Summary: it really is necessary

> In article <765@vaxb.calgary.UUCP> radford@calgary.UUCP (Radford Neal) writes:
> >In article <607@runx.OZ>, clubmac@runx.OZ (Sydney University Macintosh Society) writes:
> >> 3) Something silly about Finder 5.4b1 is that it has an animated watchcursor,
> >>    just like Servant. Is there any need for such a thing?
> >If this is what I think it is, it's an AWFUL idea. The original backup
> >utility for the Hyperdrive had a silly watch cursor with a hand that turned.
> >They got rid of it, thank god. The only use of the thing seems to be to 
> >demonstrate how clever the programmer is.

The need for the moving watch cursor is as follows:
While the hands are turning, you are assured that the machine is
"doing something" and not just "stuck in a loop".

The watch hands are updated as macroscopic progress is made, for
example, every time the Finder copies a chunk of disk. They are not
driven by an interrupt.

I'm also sure that Apple would avoid the gnarly bugs that surfaced in
the BCS-distributed moving watch hands, which were independent of
application. My source indicates that the watches are just different
cursors, so the entire process is merely keeping track of which thing
to SETCURSOR to next.

A less-cutesy, more usable idea would have been to replace the menu
bar with a "progress" bargraph, or have a countdown timer. Implication
being that this would tell you how long before you got your machine
back. This is, er, non-trivial, tho, so I'm not surprised it doesn't
exist.

I'm sure a more formal, less cute indicator would sit better with the
serious folks. But look at it for what it gives you, not what form it
takes...,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.bc

PS. I personally recommend against using alpha and beta tests of
system software, especially when they don't really give you any "new"
features, the old versions are bug-free and the new are not, and the
bugs might destroy a LOT of data.