There needs to be a loop or two with all that stuff about fruit, viz: for ( int i=0; i<1000000000000000000000000000; i++) { if ( fruitloop(i) ) buyPentiumM = true; }

Well if you want to avoid the complexity of threads in C++, just put up a modeless dialog before you start your lengthy operation. Whether it has buttons on it like a "Cancel Lenghty Operation" button is up to you - having a button like this is actually harder, because you need to be able to interrupt the operation ( you would need to set a boolean and test that boolean as often as possible inside the lengthy operation). Anyhow what you described is easier - when the operation is finished, send a meessage to your modeless window to tell it to close down!

I know you cant compare apples and oranges, but then again why not? They are both fruits arent they. I have been thinking of buying a Pentium M 1.6 machine. But I want loads of horsepower, and I cannot find any reviews where they compare a machine with this kind of chip to a regular desktop machine with, say a Pentium 4, 2.8Ghz chip. I know C# is mighty fast to compile, but i still have 500,000 lines of C++ to build. Has anyone come across any comparisons?