Special

Introducing the “Welcome to Xojo” Bundle!

New to Xojo and looking for guidance? We've put together a terrific bundle to welcome you! Xojo Bundle

This bundle includes six back issues of the magazine -- all of year 21 in printed book and digital formats -- plus a one-year subscription (beginning with 22.1) so you'll be learning all about Xojo for the next year. It's the perfect way to get started programming with Xojo. And you save as much as $35 over the non-bundle price!

This offer is only available for a limited time as supplies are limited, so hurry today and order this special bundle before the offer goes away!

Article Preview


Buy Now

Issue 5.1

COLUMN

Wait For It

The Art and Science of Waiting

Issue: 5.1 (September/October 2006)
Author: Toby Rush
Author Bio: Toby Rush is a music instructor, consultant, freelance programmer, web designer, husband and Dad in Greeley, Colorado.
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 10,626
Starting Page Number: 46
Article Number: 5120
Related Link(s): None

Excerpt of article text...

On every one of my computers, I have the seconds displayed in my menubar clock. It's not anything involving an obsession with perfectly synchronized clocks (well, okay, maybe there's a little bit of that); it's because having the seconds visible makes it very easy to tell if my computer has frozen up or not. If the computer seems unresponsive, I just look up at the menubar; if I can see the seconds ticking, I know that my computer is still ticking, at least at some level.

And this brings us to an interesting topic: computer users need to know, even if it's just on a subconscious level, that their computer is responsive. Even with the faster and faster computers that are available to us, there are many things that take a while for a computer to do: copying a huge file from one computer to another, opening an enormous iPhoto library, even doing a Spotlight search on a large hard disk. When the computer undertakes a process that takes longer than even a few seconds, the user needs to know that the machine hasn't come to a grinding halt.

Hey, this is important enough that we could blow it up into a Bill of Rights: we'll call them Waiter's Rights, though by "waiters," we're talking about "people who are waiting for their computers to do something important," not "people who bring you food and beverages in a restaurant." If Waiter's Right #1 is the right to know whether or not the computer is responsive, then Waiter's Right #2 is the right to know approximately how long a process will take; that way, if a user initiates a process that ends up taking a lot longer than they had planned, they can abort it. And that leads us to Waiter's Right #3: the right to have complete control of one's computer at all times, which includes the capability to cancel a lengthy process if the user wishes to.

...End of Excerpt. Please purchase the magazine to read the full article.