[squeak-dev] computers too fast these days?

Tobias Pape Das.Linux at gmx.de
Wed Aug 21 14:05:50 UTC 2013


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Am 19.08.2013 um 20:53 schrieb Chris Muller <asqueaker at gmail.com>:

I agree with Bob.  100ms only "slows the UI" down to 10 fps for one
"frame."  By holding everything else static for that one frame, it
reinforces the purpose of flash which is to draw the users attention
to that one particular morph.

what if the morph is behind another one? Then the UI goes
halt for no apparent reason.


In an extremely busy-animated UI, flash might otherwise not fulfill
this goal as effectively.

Animation in morphic is normally handled by implementing #step and
#stepTime, not alarms.  But #flash is not animation, it's like #beep.
It's a user poke, not program output.

Which should be non-blocking nonetheless.
When my terminal on OSX flashes (visual bell, the exact same 
concept), it does not do it in a blocking fashion, all
other UI stuff continues to work.
  Again, I am strongly opposed agains any change that introduces
blocking into the UI. It just does not belong there. Modal dialogs
that also draw the attention to the current screen activity also
do not block the UI. The same way, a #beep should not block
the UI.
  Think of a typical Game loop that adjusts its calculation based
on the measured fps (for example by adjusting stepping time). This
would introduce unwanted jumps in that game loop just because some
morph somewhere flashed. 

 I agree that a #flash like a #beep should be always noticeable[1]
but I think a Delay for: whatevernumber is the wrong way.

 I just tested Bobs fix and then did the following:
Open a browser, focus the Protocol pane, start typing like crazy
(say 50 character in very short time). The effect was that my UI
was blocked for more than thee (3) seconds. This should really
not happen.

Best
	-Tobias


[1] side note: there should be a preference to turn a #beep into a 
    #flash automatically, akin to a terminal’s infamous visual bell,
    and probably vice versa.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.20 (Darwin)

iEYEARECAAYFAlIUyUYACgkQcPVIrP6PLKsOCgCdFoODDTV0QuZDr+xesVResYeb
K7gAniOwZnUwUB26w0QEkJ9xlSjT9wWV
=5Nkq
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----


More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list