The progress bar that doesn't convey any sense of progress (was Re: ...)

[Gordon Tyler]

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Jamu Kakar wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 6:54 PM, Gordon Tyler <gordon at doxxx.net> wrote:
>> Now, I like ASCII art as much as the next guy but I think the text
>> progress UI might be better if done so:
>>
>> (/)  45%   1071KB  182KB/s | Fetching revisions: Inserting stream
>>
>> In order: Spinner, Total progress, Total data transferred (down + up),
>> Overall average transfer rate, Techno-babble.
> 
> What I really want to know, which isn't addressed in your proposal,
> is "How much time is left before I have what I've asked for?".  I
> think that is, fundamentally, what people care about.  Everything
> else is typically only interesting when something goes wrong, or as
> additional information if you like that kind of thing.

Perhaps the area currently occupied by techno-babble would be a good
place to put this information:

(/)  45%   1071KB  182KB/s  1m32s remaining

Or perhaps Mac OS X-like imprecise timing:

(/)  45%   1071KB  182KB/s  About 1 minute remaining

Ciao,
Gordon

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