Gavin writes:
> Bruce writes:
> > I discovered that users would be more patient if the "Working..." part of
> > the message was made to blink. The blinking makes it appear that the
> > computer is actively calculating something.
>
> Blinking display enhancements are one of my pet peeves.  Not the use of
> them, but the way that today's terminals and terminal emulators implement
> blinking text.
>
> The old HP264x terminals are the only ones that I know of which understood
> that blinking text should not blink with a 50% duty cycle.  A 50% duty
> cycle means that the text is visible 50% of the time, and invisible 50%
> of the time.  This means that when you look up at the screen, half of the
> time you can't see anything!  Coupled with slow blink rates, this makes
> reading blinking text extremely annoying.
>

Blinking text is _so_ annoying that I gave up on it. If I want to make it look
like "the computer is doing something", I display a "Doing something..."
message with the text unenhanced and only the ellipsis blinking.

Steve Fulton
The NPD Group Canada, Inc.