@@ -227,10 +227,12 @@
 (define (dboard:common-set-tabdat! commondat tabnum tabdat)
   (hash-table-set!
    (dboard:commondat-tabdats commondat)
    tabnum
    tabdat))
+
+(define *updaters-running* #f)
 
 ;; gets and calls updater list based on curr-tab-num
 ;;
 (define (dboard:common-run-curr-updaters commondat #!key (tab-num #f))
   ;; (sync-db-to-tmp (dboard:common-get-tabdat commondat tab-num: tab-num)) ;; no longer applies
@@ -241,16 +243,43 @@
   (if (dboard:common-get-tabdat commondat tab-num: tab-num) ;; only update if there is a tabdat
       (let* ((tnum     (or tab-num (dboard:commondat-curr-tab-num commondat)))
 	     (updaters (hash-table-ref/default (dboard:commondat-updaters commondat)
 					       tnum
 					       '())))
-	(debug:print 4 *default-log-port* "Found these updaters: " updaters " for tab-num: " tnum)
-	(for-each ;; perform the function calls for the complete updaters list
-	 (lambda (updater)
-          ;; (debug:print 3 *default-log-port* "Running " updater)
-	   (updater))
-	 updaters))))
+	(if *updaters-running*
+	    (debug:print 0 *default-log-port* "updaters still running.")
+	    (let* ((th1 (make-thread (lambda ()
+				       (debug:print 4 *default-log-port* "Found these updaters: " updaters " for tab-num: " tnum)
+				       (for-each ;; perform the function calls for the complete updaters list
+					(lambda (updater)
+					  (let ((start-ms (current-milliseconds)))
+					    (debug:print 0 *default-log-port* "Running updater for tnum "tnum", "updater)
+					    (updater)
+					    (debug:print 0 *default-log-port* "Running updater for tnum "tnum" took "(- (current-milliseconds)
+															start-ms)"ms")
+					    ))
+					updaters))
+				     "updaters thread"))
+		   (th2 (make-thread (lambda ()
+				       (let loop ()
+					   (case (thread-state th1)
+					     ((terminated)
+					      (debug:print 0 *default-log-port* "th1 terminated, all done for now."))
+					     ((running)
+					      (thread-suspend! th1)
+					      (thread-sleep! 0.1)
+					      (loop))
+					     ((sleeping)
+					      (thread-resume! th1)
+					      (thread-sleep! 0.9)
+					      (loop))
+					     (else
+					      (loop))))))))
+	      (thread-start! th1)
+	      (thread-sleep! 0.1)
+	      (thread-start! th2)
+	      (thread-join! th1))))))
 
 ;; if tab-num passed in then use it, otherwise look in commondat at curr-tab-num
 ;; adds the updater passed in the updaters list at that hashkey
 ;;
 (define (dboard:commondat-add-updater commondat updater #!key (tab-num #f))