11 ms·

I loved OS/2 but I also remember the dreaded single input queue... but it didn't stop me using it until about 2000 when I realised it was time to move on.

by dnh44 1y ago

chiph 1y ago
Because of that, I got good at creating multi-threaded GUI apps. Stardock were champs at this - they had a newsgroup reader/downloader named PMINews that took full advantage of multithreading. The rule of thumb I had heard and followed was that if something could take longer than 500ms you should get off the UI thread and do it in a separate thread. You'd disable any UI controls until it was done.
- dnh44 1y ago
  I always liked Stardock; if had to use Windows I'd definitely just get all their UI mods out of the nostalgia factor.
- silon42 1y ago
  Why do I remember it was 50ms?
  - chiph 1y ago
    You're probably right. It was long long ago... I keep meaning to look at ArcaOS but I never seem to have the hardware to dedicate to it at the same time my interest returns.
JdeBP 1y ago
You actually mis-remember. One of the things that was a perpetual telephone-game distortion during the Operating System Wars was people talking about a single input queue. Presentation Manager did not have a single input queue. Every PM application had its own input queue, right from when PM began in OS/2 1.1, created by a function named WinCreateMsgQueue() no less. There were very clearly more than 1 queue. What PM had was synchronous input, as opposed to asynchronous in Win32 on Windows NT. Interestingly, in later 32-bit OS/2 IBM added some desynchronization where input would be continued asynchronously if an application stalled. Here's Daniel McNulty explaining the difference in 1996: * https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.os2.beta/c/eTlmIYgm2WI/m/jLppPkugtcsJ https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.os2.beta/c/eTlmIYgm2WI/m... And here's me kicking off an entire thread about it the same year: * https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.os2.programmer.misc/c/LhpGurEacj0/m/0Ll6CVv3WTcJ https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.os2.programmer.misc/c/Lh...
- dnh44 1y ago
  Thanks for the reminder! It’s very likely I read that post as a teenager.

I loved OS/2 but I also remember the dreaded single input queue... but it didn't stop me using it until about 2000 when I realised it was time to move on.

by dnh44 1y ago

I loved OS/2 but I also remember the dreaded single input queue... but it didn't stop me using it until about 2000 when I realised it was time to move on.

chiph 1y ago

Because of that, I got good at creating multi-threaded GUI apps. Stardock were champs at this - they had a newsgroup reader/downloader named PMINews that took full advantage of multithreading. The rule of thumb I had heard and followed was that if something could take longer than 500ms you should get off the UI thread and do it in a separate thread. You'd disable any UI controls until it was done.

dnh44 1y ago
I always liked Stardock; if had to use Windows I'd definitely just get all their UI mods out of the nostalgia factor.
silon42 1y ago
Why do I remember it was 50ms?
- chiph 1y ago
  You're probably right. It was long long ago... I keep meaning to look at ArcaOS but I never seem to have the hardware to dedicate to it at the same time my interest returns.

JdeBP 1y ago

You actually mis-remember. One of the things that was a perpetual telephone-game distortion during the Operating System Wars was people talking about a single input queue. Presentation Manager did not have a single input queue. Every PM application had its own input queue, right from when PM began in OS/2 1.1, created by a function named WinCreateMsgQueue() no less. There were very clearly more than 1 queue. What PM had was synchronous input, as opposed to asynchronous in Win32 on Windows NT. Interestingly, in later 32-bit OS/2 IBM added some desynchronization where input would be continued asynchronously if an application stalled. Here's Daniel McNulty explaining the difference in 1996: * https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.os2.beta/c/eTlmIYgm2WI/m/jLppPkugtcsJ https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.os2.beta/c/eTlmIYgm2WI/m... And here's me kicking off an entire thread about it the same year: * https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.os2.programmer.misc/c/LhpGurEacj0/m/0Ll6CVv3WTcJ https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.os2.programmer.misc/c/Lh...

dnh44 1y ago
Thanks for the reminder! It’s very likely I read that post as a teenager.