Number: 1529

Date: 27-Jun-84 16':03':46

Submitter: Sannella.PA

Source: Stefik.PA

Subject: give more feedback about what the system is doing when in DWIM

Lisp Version: 

Description: '
Date': Thu, 17 May 84 09':24 PDT'
From': Stefik.PA'
Subject': Performance Suggestion'
To': LispCore^'
cc':  Stefik'
'
I have gotten several comments about "Lisp sluggishness on D-machines" from many folks taking the Loops course.  In watching the system during these times I have noticed that many times the apparent sluggishness is actually the result of DWIM working hard to succeed.  Naive users, who are forming their important impressions about the computers, often have no model of what is really happening -- especially since there is no hint that DWIM or somebody was ever invoked.'
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Suggestion':  When entering any time-consuming feature of DWIM we could change the cursor to something recognizable say either'
'
DW'
IM     or      ?     or something more creative.'
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This would give valuable feedback while waiting for things to happen.'
Mark'
'


Workaround: 

Test Case: 

Edit-By: masinter.PA

Edit-Date: 20-Jul-84 13':03':32

Attn: Lisp

Assigned To: 

In/By: 

Disposition: [From': Masinter, date 20 Jul 84':'
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I am sympathetic to the problem, and would like to improve the performance of DWIM to the point where people don''t wait for it a lot. I''m *real* reluctant to glitch up the user interface with a different cursor shape -- the cursor is for pointing, and I''d like to get rid of the places where we use it for status, not increase them. Do you have another suggestion? (I''ve changed the "Subject':" of the AR to ''give more feedback about what the system is doing when in DWIM'' to reflect the requirement, left it open, but I think it requires more discussion about how to solve this in general.) Ideas, folks?

System: Programming Environment

Subsystem: DWIM

Machine: 

Disk: 

Microcode Version: 

Memory Size: 

File Server: 

Server Software Version: 

Difficulty: Easy

Frequency: Everytime

Impact: Annoying

Priority: Perhaps

Status: Wish

Problem Type: Design - UI

Source Files: