Hi Dair, Thanks-you for your very thorough explanation.
Using an animated strip graphic similar to what MS Outlook 2010 does seems to be a good solution for my app. Tony. > -----Original Message----- > From: interest-bounces+tony=rightsoft.com...@qt-project.org > [mailto:interest-bounces+tony=rightsoft.com...@qt-project.org] On Behalf > Of Dair Grant > Sent: Monday, 2 April 2012 6:22 PM > To: interest@qt-project.org > Subject: Re: [Interest] Very old wait cursor on Mac OSX > > > On 2 Apr 2012, at 08:50, Tony Rietwyk wrote: > > > On Windows 7, it shows the correct spinning blue circle. On OSX, it > > shows the a cursor with four quadrants - 2 white and 2 black, which is > > very old, and not anti-aliased, so it looks really ugly. I expect to > > see the spinning rainbow cursor, or possibly the circle of short lines > > that appears when logging in. > > Unfortunately Cocoa doesn't provide a built-in "wait" cursor; however the > spinning B&W quadrant is the historical "I'm busy" cursor so is arguably the > correct one to use. > > Mac OS X's Java implementation has an updated version of that cursor but > unfortunately it's not available to non-Java apps: > > <http://www.flickr.com/photos/raza/2721851036/> > > The spinning rainbow cursor is an indication that the app has stopped > responding to events, which is a separate situation from "I'm busy working > on something". If the app has stopped responding to events, users will > assume it's OK to force quit it (and clicking the app icon in the Dock at that > point will show "Force Quit" rather than "Quit"). > > The spinning bars activity indicator is not meant as a cursor - that's intended > to be shown in a window. > > Adobe did actually use the activity indicator as a cursor at one point, however > a lot of people find it confusing (it would be like changing the cursor to a > progress bar): > > <http://reliablybroken.com/b/2010/05/death-or-beachball/> > > > The lack of a wait cursor in Cocoa is really down to how Apple want cursors to > be used. Ideally the app should always show an arrow/non-wait cursor, > should display progress using an activity indicator/progress bar, and always > respond to the user's input. > > If you're in a task which just can't be stopped, the user needs to see a > window-modal sheet or app-modal dialog explaining what's going on (ideally > with a Cancel button to let them interrupt it, and a progress bar/activity > indicator to show them something's happening). > > > -dair > ___________________________________________________ > d...@refnum.com http://www.refnum.com/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Interest mailing list > Interest@qt-project.org > http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/interest _______________________________________________ Interest mailing list Interest@qt-project.org http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/interest
