4 ms·

You’d think Apple, having developed the thing, would have used Core Animation for this.

wtallis 6y ago
Especially since Apple re-wrote the Finder for the OS X release right after the one that introduced Core Animation. Maybe they were trying to be a bit conservative with the Cocoa Finder rewrite and were focused on simply ditching the Carbon APIs while preserving as much of the application's behavior and internal structure as possible, rather than more thoroughly modernizing the app. But the fact that it still hasn't been modernized in this way for more than a decade sounds like Apple's macOS developers a Microsoft-style fear of touching core components of the OS.
- bombcar 6y ago
  Maybe there’s a dependency that prevents them from using core animation there. In which case not animating may be the correct response.
  - 908B64B197 6y ago
    My bet is you want the finder to have the least amount of dependencies, so it can still work even if a lot of things are broken in the OS.
pmiller2 6y ago
Yeah, that does seem like a rookie mistake. Does the extra CPU use typically cause any visible issues to the user, though? User impact is what's most important here. I don't particularly care if my CPU works a little harder than it needs to for a few seconds, as long as I can still do what I want on the machine without issue.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  The animation spins for as long as the backup runs, which for me was about ten minutes an hour.
  - pmiller2 6y ago
    I see. Does it disrupt your use of the computer in any way? In other words, if you weren't looking at a CPU monitor, would you notice?
    - oarsinsync 6y ago
      Using half a core for 10 mins per hour will likely have a material effect on battery life. Unless someone instruments exactly how much, it’s hard to say, but this doesn’t seem like a hand-wave.
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      It would make the fans come on occasionally, which was annoying. But in general I am of the opinion that apps shouldn’t be using processor time when they’re not doing anything useful. This is why I always have a CPU monitor open: it quickly lets me know when something starts doing unexpected things.
  - bartvk 6y ago
    Sounds quite long, actually. I’ve recently found that external SSDs have become affordable enough for me to use them for backups. Good on you for digging in and finding the issue, by the way.

Especially since Apple re-wrote the Finder for the OS X release right after the one that introduced Core Animation. Maybe they were trying to be a bit conservative with the Cocoa Finder rewrite and were focused on simply ditching the Carbon APIs while preserving as much of the application's behavior and internal structure as possible, rather than more thoroughly modernizing the app. But the fact that it still hasn't been modernized in this way for more than a decade sounds like Apple's macOS developers a Microsoft-style fear of touching core components of the OS.

bombcar 6y ago
Maybe there’s a dependency that prevents them from using core animation there. In which case not animating may be the correct response.
- 908B64B197 6y ago
  My bet is you want the finder to have the least amount of dependencies, so it can still work even if a lot of things are broken in the OS.

pmiller2 6y ago

Yeah, that does seem like a rookie mistake. Does the extra CPU use typically cause any visible issues to the user, though? User impact is what's most important here. I don't particularly care if my CPU works a little harder than it needs to for a few seconds, as long as I can still do what I want on the machine without issue.

saagarjha 6y ago
The animation spins for as long as the backup runs, which for me was about ten minutes an hour.
- pmiller2 6y ago
  I see. Does it disrupt your use of the computer in any way? In other words, if you weren't looking at a CPU monitor, would you notice?
  - oarsinsync 6y ago
    Using half a core for 10 mins per hour will likely have a material effect on battery life. Unless someone instruments exactly how much, it’s hard to say, but this doesn’t seem like a hand-wave.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    It would make the fans come on occasionally, which was annoying. But in general I am of the opinion that apps shouldn’t be using processor time when they’re not doing anything useful. This is why I always have a CPU monitor open: it quickly lets me know when something starts doing unexpected things.
- bartvk 6y ago
  Sounds quite long, actually. I’ve recently found that external SSDs have become affordable enough for me to use them for backups. Good on you for digging in and finding the issue, by the way.