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

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Martin Pool writes:

 > There is some smoothing; perhaps there should be more.  Maybe your
 > network has very different characteristics.  It is possible that it
 > actually does transmit 500kb/s for a bit, then pause, in which case it
 > may be better not to hide that.

I think that's wrong.  I rather doubt that it's possible for me or you
to do anything about this burstiness, and it doesn't hurt things;
average intercontinental transfer rates of 200KB/s are nothing to
sneeze at.  However, if the average transfer rate drops from 200KB/s
to 50KB/s over a period of 30s, I know the network has gone wonky.

To be more specific about "intercontinental", I'm in Japan, using bzr
exclusively with local or overseas branches -- I don't have interest
in any Japanese project using bzr yet. So I either have gigabit
connectivity, or I'm at the mercy of every shark with a perverse taste
for fiberoptic cable!

 > I have one specific idea which I could do today, in between piloting:
 > hide the progress bar and just show a spinner, plus the network
 > indicators, plus the nerdy text.  The progress bar is not in practice
 > a good indicator of overall progress until the code that feeds it is
 > updated, so maybe it's better of hidden?

+1, and if I have time I'll get myself about five more identities so I
can vote five more times!

I personally find the nerdy text some what useful and interesting, so
I don't mind that.  Rates are important, and even in my situation
instantaneous is better than nothing.  But more smoothing would be
good in my situation: I guess a 5s moving average would be good enough
for me.  It would give you, Brian, and Gordon a reasonably good
indicator, although it might hide fluctuations you'd like to see.

But maybe it should be an option, although I really did think that
probably an option wouldn't be necessary. :-(