[comp.sys.mac.hypercard] HC 2.0 sloowwwwwiiiiing down

jacob@latcs2.lat.oz.au (Jacob L. Cybulski) (04/23/91)

I've discovered a very unusual HC 2.0 phenomena.
Whenever I run a script which does not require
any mouse interaction for a long time, Hypercard
slowly forgets it needs executing. After a while
it nearly stops. First I thought it must be the
Multi Finder effect, but exactly the same happened
while running under Finder.

The funny thing happens when I start moving the
mouse wildly, you can see a real improvement in
performance!

Any ideas? Note I am running HC 2.0 on a portable
which may do some weird things but never affected
any other of my applications.

I am not sure if this is of any relevance, but if you
create a new button and watch its marching ants for
a while they slow down a while and then stop, same
as my non-interactive script.

Is it a bug? Is it a feature? It is very annoying!

Jacob

tom@wcc.oz.au (Tom Evans) (04/25/91)

In article <1991Apr23.034046.8865@latcs2.lat.oz.au>, jacob@latcs2.lat.oz.au (Jacob L. Cybulski) writes:
> I've discovered a very unusual HC 2.0 phenomena. Whenever I run
> a script which does not require any mouse interaction for a long time,
> Hypercard slowly forgets it needs executing. After a while
> it nearly stops. 
>
> Any ideas? Note I am running HC 2.0 on a portable which may do some 
> weird things but never affected any other of my applications.

Just run ANY application that has an insertion point on a Portable and
watch the insertion point flashing. After 16 seconds it goes very
slow. This is part of the Portable's power-saving behaviour. What is
happening is that every memory cycle is getting 64 wait-states added
to it. Even when running off mains power.

There's supposed to be a system call that application can use to
convince the OS that it is still alive - presumably HC 2.0 doesn't
do this.

========================
Tom Evans  tom@wcc.oz.au ** ADD ".au" MANUALLY (don't trust "reply") **
Webster Computer Corp P/L, 1270 Ferntree Gully Rd Scoresby, Melbourne 3179
Victoria, Australia 61-3-764-1100  FAX ...764-1179  A.C.N. 004 818 455

jacob@latcs2.lat.oz.au (Jacob L. Cybulski) (05/01/91)

Thanks for all the help regarding the slow HC 2.0.
It was indeed the Mac Portable power saving feature.
If you too are suffering from the slow HC syndrome,
then you need to open the "Portable" control panel 
document and option-click the top of the dialog box,
this will bring this totally invisible, well hidden,
although documented somewhere in the Portable manuals
dialog in which you could specify that the Mac should
not go to sleep after 15 secs of no user input.

It is also a problem with HC 2.0 that does not inform
the Mac that it is doing something.

Jacob