problems with screen updates from ActivateItem

[InVermont]

when doing things that take a long time, I like to display periodic updates to the user, letting them know my code hasn't crashed, it is just busy.
something like


SetOnScreenText("performing query. Please wait");
Pluginhelper.ForceRepaint();
execute(query);
foreach (record r in query) {
SetOnScreenText("processing record " + r.title )
Pluginhelper.ForceRepaint()
// process record
}

Now, this works as expected if triggered from a button. But when called from ActivateItem, the screen never updates until after ActivateItem is exited.
Is this by design? Is there a way around it?
Thanks

[sub]

When I have things that are potentially going to take a long time, I do it in chunks, a little bit at a time with each call to NeedsRendering(). How much I usually do is based on time. For example, I'll process stuff for up to a second, if it takes long I'll do more of it on the next call. It makes the logic a little more complicated, but helps the responsiveness.

[InVermont]

Thanks. I'll have to give that some thought.