Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

Post by bump-ladel » Wed, Jul 03, 2019, 6:44 PM UTC

yokohummer7 wrote: post #52

UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #13

This wasn't just restricted to COM port based I/O either. Back then I had a Logitech bus mouse. The mouse was connected directly to an ISA card, and didn't use the COM ports as most mice did back then. (I needed the extra COM port/IRQ for my modems.) I too witnessed the 'windows is running slow when installing' bug. I often would use the mouse cursor to 'mark' the position of the loading bar (we really are spoiled fo…

> I often would use the mouse cursor to 'mark' the position of the loading bar (we really are spoiled for speed these days). This is just me, oh my gosh. I thought I was the only one who did that. But now I come to think about it, it can't be true. It has been a really long time since I used that technique last time...

Post by samstave » Wed, Jul 03, 2019, 6:51 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #105

cek wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've told the exact same story. Weird.

Also $926?

Post by Sohcahtoa82 » Wed, Jul 03, 2019, 6:53 PM UTC

tempguy9999 wrote: post #70

I had something that may have been related. In VLC with my old monitor (1920x1080) watching a film it would often flicker painfully. I found moving the mouse continually would make it smooth. A bit of python... import ctypes, time def move(x, y): ctypes.windll.user32.SetCursorPos(x, y) for x in range(10000000): move(0, 0) time.sleep(0.01) move(1, 1) ... and all was well. (When I upgraded to a 4K monitor things got wo…

    for x in range(10000000):

Post by tempguy9999 » Wed, Jul 03, 2019, 7:02 PM UTC

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #125

tempguy9999 wrote: post #70

I had something that may have been related. In VLC with my old monitor (1920x1080) watching a film it would often flicker painfully. I found moving the mouse continually would make it smooth. A bit of python... import ctypes, time def move(x, y): ctypes.windll.user32.SetCursorPos(x, y) for x in range(10000000): move(0, 0) time.sleep(0.01) move(1, 1) ... and all was well. (When I upgraded to a 4K monitor things got wo…

for x in range(10000000): Why not just use `while True:` ?

Post by delinka » Wed, Jul 03, 2019, 7:11 PM UTC

wongarsu wrote: post #104

woodrowbarlow wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to be fair, "actual progress" is almost always a misnomer anyway.

When I implement progress bars I most often implement "pessimistic progress", so "considering all timeouts, worst case we are 46.5% (of the time) to some result", with an update every few hundreed milliseconds. As possible mix in data from completed subtasks. Nobody ever complains if the process suddenly speeds up because progress was made before the timeout, as long as your initial estimate wasn't absurd (looks at W…