On 10/10/12 8:45 AM, M Jarvis wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Michael Madigan <[email protected]> wrote:
>> VFP 9.0.
>>
>> I go to run a query, and it looks like the program is hung, then the
>> Thermometer pops up when it's nearly 80% done.
>>
>> I can hear the users complaining about this one.
>>
>> Any idea why this is occurring?
>
>
> You could just tell them that the first part of the query "runs REALLY
> fast!!!", and the last 20% is just way more complicated, thus the
> thermometer....
>
> When it comes to status messages, if you are churning through lots and
> lots of single entries, say Names or something, that updates via video
> can REALLY slow down the progress. You might experiment with doing the
> WAIT WINDOW vs screen updates vs SET MESSAGE choices and see which one
> is fastest...
>
> I'm partial to SET MESSAGE myself- it seems to have the least screen
> manipulation going on thus the fastest updates...
I like telling the user what is going on, erring on the side of giving too much
information. Progress bars may be pretty, but by themselves they don't tell the
user
anything and as you say what's the point of making the process go even slower by
making sure to keep the UI updated every x cycles. WAIT WINDOW may seem ugly,
but no
user has ever complained about it to me, and using descriptive messages there
lets me
instantly see the slow parts ("hmm, it always pauses 5 seconds on 'Currently
processing vendor for PO 1234 cycle B' while the rest is fast enough.")
The user may never read the message unless there's a problem in which case it's
another information point to pass on to me, but it satisifies multiple goals,
including letting them know the system is working and not just hanging there,
without
measurably slowing things down more like progress bars tend to do.
Paul
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