Scripting is notorious for being slow to process, Python is relatively good but still a scripted system, so users waiting completion of a task is nothing new. So this makes me wonder:

Is there a standard easy way to make a sort of dialog or alert with animated hourglass show up while my process is running? Some methods I can call to set or drop the message and the message dropping automatically when my script dies?

I guess it does require spawing threads and watches. I'd rather go by a proven solution than invent something bad myself.