GNU bug report logs - #3751
23.0.95; C-h H does not display hourglass cursor

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Message #5 received at submit <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: emacs-pretest-bug <at> gnu.org
Subject: 23.0.95; C-h H does not display hourglass cursor
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:11:19 +0300

On MS Windows, "C-h H" takes as much as 10 seconds (on a 3GHz
machine), but no hourglass cursor is displayed during that time,
making it look like nothing is going on.

If displaying an hourglass cursor during the time Emacs prepares to
display etc/HELLO is difficult, at the very least please display some
informative message that ends with "please wait..." in the echo area.


In GNU Emacs 23.0.95.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600)
 of 2009-06-27 on HOME-C4E4A596F7
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600
configured using `configure --with-gcc (3.4)'

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: ENU
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: cp1255
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: RMAIL

Minor modes in effect:
  shell-dirtrack-mode: t
  desktop-save-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  display-time-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  global-auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  temp-buffer-resize-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t

Recent input:
C-h H M-x r e p o r t - 0 e m <tab> <backspace> <backspace>
<backspace> e m <tab> <return>

Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
Loading vc-cvs...done
View mode: type C-h for help, h for commands, q to quit.

Message #8 received at 3751 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 3751 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: 23.0.95; C-h H does not display hourglass cursor
Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2011 08:27:39 +0200

Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:

> On MS Windows, "C-h H" takes as much as 10 seconds (on a 3GHz
> machine), but no hourglass cursor is displayed during that time,
> making it look like nothing is going on.
>
> If displaying an hourglass cursor during the time Emacs prepares to
> display etc/HELLO is difficult, at the very least please display some
> informative message that ends with "please wait..." in the echo area.

Adding a "please wait..." message is easy enough, but is there any way
to determine when the wait is over?  Emacs hangs in redisplay, probably?

And just leaving the "please wait..." after the wait is over wouldn't be
nice, either.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  bloggy blog http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/

Message #11 received at 3751 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
Cc: 3751 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: 23.0.95; C-h H does not display hourglass cursor
Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2011 12:14:47 +0300

> From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
> Cc: 3751 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2011 08:27:39 +0200
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > On MS Windows, "C-h H" takes as much as 10 seconds (on a 3GHz
> > machine), but no hourglass cursor is displayed during that time,
> > making it look like nothing is going on.
> >
> > If displaying an hourglass cursor during the time Emacs prepares to
> > display etc/HELLO is difficult, at the very least please display some
> > informative message that ends with "please wait..." in the echo area.
> 
> Adding a "please wait..." message is easy enough, but is there any way
> to determine when the wait is over?  Emacs hangs in redisplay, probably?
> 
> And just leaving the "please wait..." after the wait is over wouldn't be
> nice, either.

Would it work to let-bind view-mode-hook to some function that will
just clear the echo area, around the call to view-file?

Message #14 received at 3751 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 3751 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: 23.0.95; C-h H does not display hourglass cursor
Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2011 10:00:34 +0200

Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:

>> Adding a "please wait..." message is easy enough, but is there any way
>> to determine when the wait is over?  Emacs hangs in redisplay, probably?
>> 
>> And just leaving the "please wait..." after the wait is over wouldn't be
>> nice, either.
>
> Would it work to let-bind view-mode-hook to some function that will
> just clear the echo area, around the call to view-file?

Hm.  Would that work?  I though that (basically) Emacs just put the
HELLO file in a window, and then the redisplay engine starts churning
and churning while the OS is loading all the fonts.

To clear the "please wait..." message you'd have to have a hook that's
run after redisplay is "finished", if that is even a possible concept.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  bloggy blog http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/

Message #19 received at 3751 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 3751 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: 23.0.95; C-h H does not display hourglass cursor
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2019 07:01:23 +0100

Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:

> On MS Windows, "C-h H" takes as much as 10 seconds (on a 3GHz
> machine), but no hourglass cursor is displayed during that time,
> making it look like nothing is going on.
>
> If displaying an hourglass cursor during the time Emacs prepares to
> display etc/HELLO is difficult, at the very least please display some
> informative message that ends with "please wait..." in the echo area.

Hi Eli,

Here is another bug of yours that was reported 10 years ago.  Is this
still an issue?  It seems to me that it would be easy to add a message
using progress-reporter.

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas

Message #22 received at 3751 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
Cc: 3751 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: 23.0.95; C-h H does not display hourglass cursor
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2019 10:21:53 +0200

> From: Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
> Cc: 3751 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2019 07:01:23 +0100
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > On MS Windows, "C-h H" takes as much as 10 seconds (on a 3GHz
> > machine), but no hourglass cursor is displayed during that time,
> > making it look like nothing is going on.
> >
> > If displaying an hourglass cursor during the time Emacs prepares to
> > display etc/HELLO is difficult, at the very least please display some
> > informative message that ends with "please wait..." in the echo area.
> 
> Hi Eli,
> 
> Here is another bug of yours that was reported 10 years ago.  Is this
> still an issue?  It seems to me that it would be easy to add a message
> using progress-reporter.

It is still an issue, and the reason is the details of how the
hourglass cursor display is implemented on MS-Windows.

I'd like this bug report to be left open, because it is an example of
quite a few other situations where a prolonged operation doesn't cause
the hourglass cursor to be displayed.  I still hope that someone will
add or modify the code to produce the expected effect in those cases.

If someone wants to work on this, I can provide more details.

Thanks.

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