[PythonCE] DLL hourglass in ctypes

[Adam Walley]

Just one more note on this. Having tinkered a little with ppygui, I decided
that although it is a very fine package, it would not really help with what
I am aiming for - mainly because it is event based, whereas pygame apps
would tend to need 'real-time' interaction, rather than waiting for the user
to press something. If someone knows where/how I would put a main loop into
a ppygui app then let me know.

I did find that adding the lines:

   import _pcceshell_support
   _pcceshell_support.Busy(0)

worked like a dream! No more hourglass/busy indicator/color wheel or
whatever it's called (not knowing makes it harder to google). So thanks to
Christopher for that tip.

Adam.

2008/8/13 Adam Walley <adam.walley at gmail.com>

> Well, my initial question certainly seems to have stirred some interest.
> Thanks to everyone for the input. I think what I can draw from all this is
> that:
>
> 1. The hourglass/busy icon is useful to give users an indication of when
> the application is busy 'grinding' away at something and user input is not
> expected/possible at that time - as in the application John described in a
> previous post.
>
> 2. The hourglass/busy icon is NOT helpful when the application is doing
> some processing that involves some visual effects, since the hourglass/busy
> icon then interferes and obscures the display. This is a nuisance, when the
> application is trying to display something on screen (whether it requires
> user input or not). I would say most pygame applications fall into this
> category (and the idea of pygame for PythonCE is what prompted this post in
> the first place).
>
> My conclusion would be that while there is no harm in having this icon
> appear by default, it cannot be left to the system to decide when the icon
> should appear. Therefore, a method of 'disabling' the icon, at least for the
> duration of the execution of a script, would be useful.
>
> Jared kindly pointed out that the ppygui package already has this covered,
> so at least in the first instance I will see whether I can combine what I
> have built so far with ppygui to see if I can achieve a satisfactory result.
>
> Thanks again to all.
>
> Adam
>
>
> 2008/8/13 Brad Clements <bkc at murkworks.com>
>
> Christopher Fairbairn wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> They use code along the lines of:
>>>
>>>   import _pcceshell_support
>>>  _pcceshell_support.Busy(0);
>>>
>>> I haven't liked this, since it means each library needs to be aware of
>>> something
>>> PythonCE specific. For cleaness I think the native C part of the Python
>>> interpreter can (and should) take care of this.
>>>
>>>
>> Ah, this rings a bell.
>>
>> I think according to the Windows CE compatibility guide, you're supposed
>> to show the hourglass until your application is "ready for user input".
>>
>> I believe it's up to the application .py file, not any libraries or
>> interpreter, to make the Busy(0) call.
>>
>> Only the application author knows how many modules need to be loaded and
>> when the application really has "started".
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Brad Clements,                bkc at murkworks.com    (315)268-1000
>> http://www.murkworks.com                          AOL-IM: BKClements
>>
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>>
>
>
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