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

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

#141

Post by james-skemp »

bump-ladel wrote: post #121
yokohummer7 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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...

A couple of weeks ago, I marked the (no)progress bar on a macOS update with a piece of surgical tape.

Thank you for posting a physical marker; I was afraid I was the only person that's done so.

I've been known to use Post-its and the frame of my monitor as a marker. Both are much easier with how prevalent dual-monitors are these days.

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

#142

Post by dpkonofa »

butisaidsudo wrote: post #66
air7 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too. What a humbling slap-in-the-face, no? Sometimes when an idea sounds silly, and comes from a less technical person, one might disregard it even though it's easily testable/provable.

I love these kind of issues, here are two classics: - Open Office won't print on Tuesdays: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cupsys/+bug/255161... - Can't send email more than 500 miles: http://web.mit.edu/jemorris/humor/500-miles

What in the world could possibly be the reason in that first story for the 'file' program to look for the string 'Tue' and change to the Jam filetype? That's gotta be a very niche case, right?

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

#143

Post by ben_w »

markdown wrote: post #139
mehrdadn wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Question (I don't know how Android works) -- how is there even a "frame rate" for a map that isn't moving? Shouldn't it not be doing anything at all when nobody is touching anything?

> could align map north with compass north Maybe the map turns as you turn so as to maintain compass north.

Just to confirm: yes, that is exactly what I meant.

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

#145

Post by dbtx »

I have a terrifically annoying bug that shows up somewhere between X and GTK and all Gecko-based browsers. While I'm scrolling down in a web page with the mouse wheel, within a few seconds the page will stop moving. The mouse will still move around, but it will stop changing its cursor based on hovered elements, and further mouse actions will do nothing. It will unjam itself something like 30 seconds later if I wait, or immediately if I press any key. Then all the queued mouse events will rush through at once, so if the key I hit was Ctrl, the page's contents zoom out and I have to reset it. If I hit Shift, it walks back through the history and I lose my place. So I was hitting Alt for a while, besides shopping for a distro.

I couldn't debug it normally, or even get a clue about which package needs to be downgraded, because I can't pop over to the terminal without unjamming it. So I'd need another machine with which to SSH in, and those are all unusable ATM (well, I probably just needed to suck it up and install SSH on the phone). But ${somehow} I found out that triggering a redraw with ${something} also unjams it, so I set the clock in the XFCE panel (also GTK, FWIW) to display seconds as well. Now it still jams but always for less than a second.

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

#146

Post by yellowapple »

wnevets wrote: post #86
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…

Was this a win95 only bug? I remember doing the mouse thing on 98 as well.

I mean, I still do the mouse thing all the time, regardless of OS. Not because I actually expect it to go faster, mind you, but rather because I'm bored.

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

#147

Post by yial »

TomMarius wrote: post #43
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…

One time I was installing Windows 95, I had to move the cursor the whole time because otherwise the installation got stuck. I discovered this after at least 30 tries.

I remember having this exact some experience once before! I'm glad I wasn't the only one.

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

#148

Post by mehrdadn »

ben_w wrote: post #143
markdown wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> could align map north with compass north Maybe the map turns as you turn so as to maintain compass north.

Just to confirm: yes, that is exactly what I meant.

Oh I see, it was supposed to align in real time, I missed that. Thanks.

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

#150

Post by myself248 »

toast0 wrote: post #84
RyJones wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re soft now. It might indicate your usb driver is wedged, not if your CPU is responding to interrupts at all. This is a problem for NTP developers - finding real serial ports on modern hardware

The keyboard lights have always been soft. There are certainly more layers now between a keyboard and an os though.

The softness is precisely what made them a useful check, though. Tapping num lock has two important properties: Nothing should ever be blocking that process, and it's harmless to do and should never really affect what's happening.
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