VB 2008 - WaitCursor does not work

[desertavataraz]

I am trying in Visual Basic 2008 to make the wait cursor appear as a file is opening, in case it is a long file, and this is the code, but it does not work:

        Dim openFile1 As New OpenFileDialog()
            If DiscardChanges() Then
                Me.UseWaitCursor = True
                ' Initialize the OpenFileDialog to look for RTF files.
                openFile1.DefaultExt = "*.rtf"
                openFile1.Filter = "RTF Files|*.rtf|Doc Files|*.DOC|" & _
                "Text Files|*.txt|All Flies|*.*"
                ' Determine whether the user selected a file from the OpenFileDialog.
                If (openFile1.ShowDialog() = System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK) _
                    And (openFile1.FileName.Length > 0) Then
                    ' Load the contents of the file into the RichTextBox.
                    RichTextBox1.LoadFile(openFile1.FileName, _
                        RichTextBoxStreamType.RichText)
                    RichTextBox1.Modified = False
                    fName = openFile1.FileName
                End If
            End If
            Me.UseWaitCursor = False

[Salmenmikko]

Hi desertavataraz!

I'm a C# coder and I'm not sure about the whole UseWaitCursor-business, but how about this:

Add a line changing your current cursor to wait cursor just before doing the operation that might take long and changing it back to dafault after it's done.

Like this(example just sleeps 5 secs to simulate long file open):

        Me.Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor
        Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000)
        Me.Cursor = Cursors.Default

If I were you, I'd place the cursor change to right before call to

RichTextBox1.LoadFile

and change it back right after it.

HTH,
salmenmikko

[desertavataraz]

That looks like a very good suggestion, I will try it out when I get back from vacation . .. Thanks!

[Dissymmetry]

The UseWaitCursor applies to a specific control and all its child controls. This means that the cursor will change to a wait cursor when it is over that control or control group only. You would call it such ...

Me.UseWaitCursor = True
Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000)
Me.UseWaitCursor = False

It only works, however, when that control or control group is actually processing code. This means you can't just set the cursor and end code execution waiting for input from another source or control to clear the cursor. It may work that way if you set Application.UseWaitCursor = True, but then you may as well use the other code.