Thank you all for some insight there. I've just done some more tests.
I've found that if you use a bigger font for the calender (ie the window gets larger) then it eats more CPU than a smaller font (smaller window).
With a large font (size 20 something) it eats up to 5% of my CPU if the clock face is displayed as well.
Probably to do with the area which is being redrawn - larger fonts mean more pixels of transparency to render. You might get a similar effect with a larger face area too...
Earlier when I said the priority defaulted at -20, it doesn't (I apologise, I don't know where that came from) it actually defaults to +1. Anyway, the priority doesn't seem to make any difference.
You see, I don't think you quite understand how the priority thing works with respect to CPU time. If a task needs 5% of the CPU time to run, and 5% is available, then it gets 5%, regardless of priority. Simple as that. In your case, nearly 100% of the CPU time is available, a task needs 5% and so it gets its 5%. Where priorities come into play is when there isn't enough CPU time available for every task. In these cases, higher priority tasks get more of the CPU time at the expense of lower priority tasks. But in your case, there's plenty of CPU time for every task with heaps to spare, so why can't every task have all it wants, e.g. 5%?
(That's a little simplified, but it gets the point across)
The strange thing is I did a real test rendering a Vista scene and it didn't appear to impact on the rendering time at all. Maybe that's Executive doing it's magic? Or maybe it's not really using 1.5% - 5% and it's a fake reading? Or a misleading reading?
Executive is very good at redistributing CPU time across tasks, but it can't magically make more of them. What I suspect is happening here is that the Vista rendering process runs at a higher priority than LimpidClock, meaning that if it needs 100%, it pretty much gets 100%. The 5% that the clock needs is reallocated to Vista, so you should see the seconds skip sometimes or some similar effect. Executive might prevent this from happening by rationing LimpidClock some cycles (less than 5%) which gives a smoother overall experience at very little cost to Vista.
How does LimpidClock affect slower systems such as 020/030? Is anyone using it on those configurations?
I run it here on an 030/50 and AGA. I run it at -20 IIRC, and it's never had any issues. I haven't measured how much CPU time it uses but it doesn't matter since whenever anything else needs those cycles, it gets them instead of the clock...
