"Run in Background" in Beta 6

I did not have a problem with the slowdowns so much on my faster computer (where indexing would take less than a day), but it was on my netbook where I would want to run the indexing in the background. But as it is, it would take 2-3 days to index (longer if I had to put the computer on hibernate for a long time for transport). To put it on background and continue to use it would then likely take 1-2 weeks (depending on hibernation time). That's a very long time without a restart. My gut feeling is that this solution will only be truly effective if the issue of not allowing a restart is resolved as well.

To activate "background mode", right click the Indexer icon and choose "Run in background". If you do this, we'd like to know two things:

I didn't take up the option this time on my Win 7 desktop, but if I take up the option to re-index I may do so!!?

Is this nag the price we have to pay for partial indexing? If I hit that link accidentaly I will not be a happy chappy!

Could it not be placed as an item in the Tools menu instead?

Does it make your system feel faster/more responsive?

Yes it does. Instead of making everything drag, the system is about as responsive as when there is no indexing going on.

Does the indexing complete in a reasonable amount of time if it's running in the background?

After updating and starting indexing (it said I had a 1.2 GB download), Logos 4 did not open for 2 hours and 45 minutes. The 'Preparing Your Library" notice was displayed during that time.

This is a long time not to be able to use Logos 4 but I don't know how it compares to the time I'd have waited without using background indexing.

Logos finished the indexing countdown of my approx. 2500 resources in just over 2 hours and 45 minutes. Additonal idexing continued for another 10 mintes, so under 3 hours for the whole job.

Is the tradeoff of system responsiveness for increased indexing time worth it? What if it were more automatic (e.g., background mode between 8am and 10pm, foreground mode overnight)?

Right now I'd say yes to the first question. The only concern is not being able to access Logos 4 at all during this indexing time. Perhaps that's another issue, but I'd like to be able to access the program even if indexing isn't complete.

As long as the user could set the automatic setting (whether on or off and if on at what times) I'd say yes. Otherwise leave the option associated with the icon in the tray.

One other note. After indexing was complete and Logos 4 was open it stayed open  to a blank layout (I chose for it not to open to the Home Page). It did not attempt to open the last layout. Perhaps this is due to the upgrade to beta 6.

Also, I just closed L4 without using it at all and it didn't not close normally. After some time I got a Windows generated error message saying the program had not closed normally. Don't know if this is connected with the background indexing but thought I should report it.

I then rebooted and reopened L4. It is working fine.

Now I'm puzzled. For some reason after this afternoon's installation and indexing I opened a search window and saw the yellow warning I needed to index. So I did, figuring it was a few resources. After all it had just gone through an indexing. I checked after it started and was surprised to see it was reindexing the whole library.

I put it in background and came back five hours later and only about 45 resources had been indexed. I took it out of background mode.

Two questions:

1. Why the second indexing? (I believe I saw this behavior back in Beta 4 or 5 after a download and install).

2. Why is this second use of background indexing taking so long? The first indexing, which it said it was indexing all of my 2500 or so resources, completed in about 3 hours. Here the computer spent 5 hours (most of which time I was not using the computer) to complete less than 50 resources.

Is there some sort of log file I can upload that explains all of this to you?

Thank you for this change. I really appreciate not having to reindex.