What is Digg?Sponsored by Toyota
What to do if your accelerator pedal sticks view!
toyota.com - Learn how to bring your Toyota vehicle to a safe stop if you experience a sticking accelerator pedal.
44 Comments
- mono, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5" "I always tell my users that if they drag their download progress windows around the desktop, in a fast circular motion, the downloads complete faster."
Are you serious or are you just screwing with your users?"
I prefer to characterize it as performance art, as opposed to screwing around w/ users. - jeezmos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2>> I need to find some way to increase Acrobat installs, way too much time for such an annoying program.
If you're just looking to view PDF's, check out FoxIt PDF Reader (standalone program). If you're looking to print to PDF, check out CutePDF. Both are freeware and, especially in FoxIt's case, run much much faster. - kakos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Ugh, people. This article has nothing to do with "OMG WINDOWS IS TEH SUX0R". It's an interesting side effect of a badly coded program. This could just as easily be the case on many Unix WMs.
- agimat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1and if you cluck like a chicken while you do that it'll go even faster. try it!
- rspeed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is the opposite of Mac OS 9. Unless a program was properly threaded, it would come to a complete halt when the user held down the mouse button. That was Apple's fault, though, not the developers'.
This trick won't work in OS X, however, since the UI continues to update even when the mouse button is held down. I've found that minimizing windows or hiding applications will sometimes make a sizable difference when installing software. I've also noticed that closing the main window in iTunes nearly halves its CPU usage. - YacKo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Been dealing with that for years in the slide view of PowerPoint. If you click on the scroll bar it will speed up the drawing of the slide thumbnails. Now I know why!
- LiquidPenguin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Digging this because it's something programmers need to be aware of. I belong in the camp of, "I want to be updated when I want to be updated." That's why I like Linux silent mode of operation for most of their programs. Unless there's an error, I don't give a rats ass what's going on as long as it's done right. One of my pet peeves about most Windows programs is the tendency for them to spew out loads of messages or progress updates about what's going on, even if there's nothing wrong.
My other peeve is that damn file copy status window. Why animate a flying file from folder to folder when it doesn't actually represent progress? - Jams, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0pukeAndCry - Would minimising an application not reduce its priority though?
Have to say I already new about this, and had already guessed the reason why it happens yonks ago. But then I'm quite geeky :P - Jams, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0*knew
- donnie_dark0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've read other places on OS X that if you actually move the window with the processing animation, like the gel animation or the spinning hash marks, it will speed up a bit. Hard to tell if it really makes that much of a difference, either way I'm still twiddling my thumbs.
- DisposableRob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I always tell my users that if they drag their download progress windows around the desktop, in a fast circular motion, the downloads complete faster."
Are you serious or are you just screwing with your users?
I need to find some way to increase Acrobat installs, way too much time for such an annoying program. - Filoviridae, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0>> I need to find some way to increase Acrobat installs, way too
>> much time for such an annoying program.
>>
>>>Indeed. Acrobat is a truly ***** program.
Double agree. Updates always F up my users machines to the point that I disable them when installing now. - sporty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is very evident when using terminal programs. Want someting to run faster? Minimize it.
- Jams, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"My other peeve is that damn file copy status window. Why animate a flying file from folder to folder when it doesn't actually represent progress?"
Because it looks pretty :) - mono, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I always tell my users that if they drag their download progress windows around the desktop, in a fast circular motion, the downloads complete faster. Maybe it's related.
- Xophmeister, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The disk defragmenter, in Windows 95/98, ran faster when it was checking clusters if its window lost focus... At least it did on my machine
- vhold, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0jdavid, hmm, maybe you should read the article. The problem isn't windows messaging, it's application developers who are making too many repaint requests. Holding the caption bar blocks those requests.
- pukeAndCry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's true that this is the result of too much screen repainting and the program could have been written differently but users NEED that feedback. They NEED to know what files are being copied (even if the text is changing so fast they cannot read it), the NEED that progress bar. Without this feedback most users assume the program has hung or crashed and will probably try to preform the same function again (thus slowing the program down further). Even those restaurant pagers that notify you when your table is ready has a blinking LED to prevent people from asking if their table is ready yet (well, maybe the pager wasn't working, there was no feedback).
This has always been a nice tip for power users though (I usually just minimize applications to prevent the repaint). - DisposableRob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"If you're just looking to view PDF's, check out FoxIt PDF Reader (standalone program). If you're looking to print to PDF, check out CutePDF."
Thanks for the tip, but working for the military, I'm pretty much locked into the approved corporate crapware. - torindkflt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I remember back when I was still using Win9x, some programs (AOL was one of them, I don't remember the other programs) would access the harddrive like they were doing something, then stop and sit there, doing absolutely nothing at all. But, if I were to move or click the mouse, it would start working again. Rather strange.
As for this "screen refresh" thing slowing down programs, that's something I've known for quite a while. In Win9x, Defrag runs faster if it is NOT in Details mode (The one where you see all the colored boxes), and faster still if it is minimized, because it doesn't have to waste time refreshing the screen. The same can be said with minimizing virus and spyware/adware scanners. - gambl0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"The disk defragmenter, in Windows 95/98, ran faster when it was checking clusters if its window lost focus."
Yeah, I would do that too! Actually, I would always minimize it. It's basically the same idea as this article... if it doesn't have to keep refreshing that dimage of the drive's contents, it must be able to run faster. - anirudhvr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0which is one of the reasons why command line is better if you're copying big stuff. who needs a progress bar anyway, as long as you're sure the command is correct and the prompt hasnt returned -- it's not as if you wanted exactly 51.25% of the file copied and then cancel (anyway, windows, iirc, doesnt let you do partial copies ... i could be wrong though).
*one* of the features windows lacks is an expert mode, where you can turn off most of the frills that are useful to new users. - Ashis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0RU guys sure that this is not psychological?
- Jams, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0*one* of the features windows lacks is an expert mode, where you can turn off most of the frills that are useful to new users.
I remember seeing this being argued on a MS blog about longhorn. The rants went on for pages and pages :E - uni_vision_tech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Source Code for Program is messed up.
- stonedgeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Use foxit reader for .pdfs. I've been using it for weeks and it is much faster.
- matx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What about them people who want a 100fps refresh rate in there applications ;)
"My progress bar is way better then yours, with its high quality graphics and 100fps's" - J_Omega, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0WHY?
In Windows, there is no rhyme or reason. - thenativeraver, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0lmao@ mono
that's gold - RobotCitizen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0All these years I thought I was hallucinating! I'm flushing my medication right now.
- CosmicJustice, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0IMHO Long running processes that DON'T update the screen periodically tend to get killed.
- Killgore, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Way to explain it in detail. Dugg
- MrDan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0This is news now ? Sorry, but I've known about this for ages.
When you click on the caption, the window does not get refreshed, thus there is more time allowed for processing.
I use this technique all the time; If I need a program to run faster, I simply dont have it refresh the screen as often - or even better, don't have a GUI at all while the processing is taking place. - danglerman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Very interesting...
- brlewis, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Couldn't find key information in the article: Is this true for all window managers or just sawfish?
- jdavid, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0this is one of two things
one, the machine is just using more processing juice, the mouse is process more than 60 frames per second and as such moving it creates alot of messages that need to be sent to all of the event listeners
two it is also possible that if the mouse buttion is down on the application bar, then the number of messages that are being passed are actually reduced. Invalidate form/control messages might also be reduced and so less paint events for that app are being sent.
either way this is related to the crappy messaging system in windows. I have never understood why windows would need to update the gui more than 60 frames per second. Even if someone was keying faster than 60 chars a sec(unlikely) they would not notice those chars on the display for atleast 1/60 of a second.
the fact that the gui processes messages instantly all the time is poor programming. - enzomedici, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0
Sounds like Windows to me. - chaos86, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0lol, windows is so F'd up
- Sirocco, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0>> I need to find some way to increase Acrobat installs, way too
>> much time for such an annoying program.
>>
Indeed. Acrobat is a truly ***** program. - nene7070, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0darn
- dvdjon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0O.o
- nene7070, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0yay first comment.... and on the front page too.:)
- andyeb, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0Makes no difference on a proper OS.
- shazeubaa, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0Sometimes, people wonder why an article like this makes the front page of Digg. How can that be?
