Being nice in the background

[Arie Covrigaru <arie@dip.eecs.umich.edu>]

Why is it that MACL takes so much cpu time when it is in the background
in MultiFinder.  What is it doing when it is "doing nothing"? and why?
On page 172 of the MACL manual, in the chapter about events, it says
that if the variable *lisp-idle* is t the trap _WaitNextEvent is used
and not the trap _GetNextEvent to give time to other applications running
under MultiFinder.  It also says that *lisp-idle* is bound to true by the
read loop as the loop waits for input.  I have checked *lisp-idle* and
it was nil.  I also set it to t manually and still MACL takes lots of cpu
time when in the background.  Obviously I don't understand something here.
Can anyone clear things for me please?

Thanks.

Arie Covrigaru
University of Michigan, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Ann Arbor, MI.
Internet: arie@eecs.umich.edu