Text Based Progress Indicator
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Why does the Silverlight 5 Tool installation have a text based progress indicator? See: Old School There is the regular progress bar but right beneath it there is also a text based progress indicator that flips through the /,-,\,|, characters in order to mimic a spinning graphic. I've not seen that since DOS. Maybe the rumors about some of Bill Gates original code still being in there are true! :omg:
You know how progress bars often behave. First they keep moving and then they appear to stop. The installer has hit a task that takes a little more time and the setup program appears to have frozen up. Somebody added this simple indicator that everything is ok to prevent impatient users from killing the setup when actually everything was going fine.
I'm invincible, I can't be vinced
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Why does the Silverlight 5 Tool installation have a text based progress indicator? See: Old School There is the regular progress bar but right beneath it there is also a text based progress indicator that flips through the /,-,\,|, characters in order to mimic a spinning graphic. I've not seen that since DOS. Maybe the rumors about some of Bill Gates original code still being in there are true! :omg:
I saw one of those last week -- possibly when installing SQL Server 2008, but I'm not sure. I wrote my own for use with console utilities too. They can be better than a progress bar when the process takes a long time and the progress bar would appear to be just sitting there -- I had that happen last week as well, eventually I positioned another window atop the progress bar so could compare the bar to the edge of the other window.
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I saw one of those last week -- possibly when installing SQL Server 2008, but I'm not sure. I wrote my own for use with console utilities too. They can be better than a progress bar when the process takes a long time and the progress bar would appear to be just sitting there -- I had that happen last week as well, eventually I positioned another window atop the progress bar so could compare the bar to the edge of the other window.
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Why does the Silverlight 5 Tool installation have a text based progress indicator? See: Old School There is the regular progress bar but right beneath it there is also a text based progress indicator that flips through the /,-,\,|, characters in order to mimic a spinning graphic. I've not seen that since DOS. Maybe the rumors about some of Bill Gates original code still being in there are true! :omg:
It's there because two progress bars are there. You have to have something showing that something's happening, when the progressbars stop reporting progress.
*pre-emptive celebratory nipple tassle jiggle* - Sean Ewington
"Mind bleach! Send me mind bleach!" - Nagy Vilmos
My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility
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The irony would be that the animation would continue if it runs in its own thread, even when the working thread really has frozen up
I'm invincible, I can't be vinced
I remember a progress indicator from a long time ago, that on a closer look was revealed to be an animated gif.
Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak. List of common misconceptions
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The irony would be that the animation would continue if it runs in its own thread, even when the working thread really has frozen up
I'm invincible, I can't be vinced
Fortunately I read the thread prior to posting: your post was what I was going for. Sometimes, flashing file-names helps, as it keeps changing. Not perfect, but more informative that something is really going on.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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It's there because two progress bars are there. You have to have something showing that something's happening, when the progressbars stop reporting progress.
*pre-emptive celebratory nipple tassle jiggle* - Sean Ewington
"Mind bleach! Send me mind bleach!" - Nagy Vilmos
My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier - my favourite utility
But what do we do if the progress control reporting the progress of the progress bars stops progressing?
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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Fortunately I read the thread prior to posting: your post was what I was going for. Sometimes, flashing file-names helps, as it keeps changing. Not perfect, but more informative that something is really going on.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
Or keep updating the time that has passed and the time when the task is estimated to be finished. This works well for long tasks with more or less equally long steps. I have a web application that puts together large XML downloads from a database. The users can refresh the overview page to see how their downloads are coming along and when they can expect them to be ready. Now that the users can see what's going on, we practically have no support requests anymore.
I'm invincible, I can't be vinced
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But what do we do if the progress control reporting the progress of the progress bars stops progressing?
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
Progress to the bar.
Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water
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Progress to the bar.
Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water
Consider it done!
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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Consider it done!
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
Now that's progress!
Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water
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Why does the Silverlight 5 Tool installation have a text based progress indicator? See: Old School There is the regular progress bar but right beneath it there is also a text based progress indicator that flips through the /,-,\,|, characters in order to mimic a spinning graphic. I've not seen that since DOS. Maybe the rumors about some of Bill Gates original code still being in there are true! :omg:
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Why does the Silverlight 5 Tool installation have a text based progress indicator? See: Old School There is the regular progress bar but right beneath it there is also a text based progress indicator that flips through the /,-,\,|, characters in order to mimic a spinning graphic. I've not seen that since DOS. Maybe the rumors about some of Bill Gates original code still being in there are true! :omg:
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Why does the Silverlight 5 Tool installation have a text based progress indicator? See: Old School There is the regular progress bar but right beneath it there is also a text based progress indicator that flips through the /,-,\,|, characters in order to mimic a spinning graphic. I've not seen that since DOS. Maybe the rumors about some of Bill Gates original code still being in there are true! :omg:
The reason is probably because everybody knows that the visually annoying, distracting, epileptic seizure inducing progressbar animation doesn't actually represent that anything is actually happening. Your computer could be locked up and the animation still occurs like a lemming diving into a raging river. [---] So, they use this archaic emblem of "work is being done." Probably because the programmers couldn't even tell if the installation was actually doing something. [------] Especially when, as your image demonstrates, the progressbar is in another one of its ubiquitous fictional states, the "100% complete" state, but your disk drive light and internet connection lights are still blinking furiously for another five minutes. [---------] The way programmers implement progressbars is a lot like life. The illusion that progress is being made is comforting but ultimately doesn't jive with reality. [---------]----- MarcMy Blog
An Agile walk on the wild side with Relationship Oriented Programming
Melody's Amazon Herb Site -
The reason is probably because everybody knows that the visually annoying, distracting, epileptic seizure inducing progressbar animation doesn't actually represent that anything is actually happening. Your computer could be locked up and the animation still occurs like a lemming diving into a raging river. [---] So, they use this archaic emblem of "work is being done." Probably because the programmers couldn't even tell if the installation was actually doing something. [------] Especially when, as your image demonstrates, the progressbar is in another one of its ubiquitous fictional states, the "100% complete" state, but your disk drive light and internet connection lights are still blinking furiously for another five minutes. [---------] The way programmers implement progressbars is a lot like life. The illusion that progress is being made is comforting but ultimately doesn't jive with reality. [---------]----- Marc
My Blog
An Agile walk on the wild side with Relationship Oriented Programming
Melody's Amazon Herb SiteMarc Clifton wrote:
The way programmers implement progressbars is a lot like life. The illusion that progress is being made is comforting but ultimately doesn't jive with reality.
I've said it before, many times. This site really needs an Eeyore emoticon. :-D
Henry Minute Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is. Cogito ergo thumb - Sucking my thumb helps me to think.
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The reason is probably because everybody knows that the visually annoying, distracting, epileptic seizure inducing progressbar animation doesn't actually represent that anything is actually happening. Your computer could be locked up and the animation still occurs like a lemming diving into a raging river. [---] So, they use this archaic emblem of "work is being done." Probably because the programmers couldn't even tell if the installation was actually doing something. [------] Especially when, as your image demonstrates, the progressbar is in another one of its ubiquitous fictional states, the "100% complete" state, but your disk drive light and internet connection lights are still blinking furiously for another five minutes. [---------] The way programmers implement progressbars is a lot like life. The illusion that progress is being made is comforting but ultimately doesn't jive with reality. [---------]----- Marc
My Blog
An Agile walk on the wild side with Relationship Oriented Programming
Melody's Amazon Herb Site -
Why does the Silverlight 5 Tool installation have a text based progress indicator? See: Old School There is the regular progress bar but right beneath it there is also a text based progress indicator that flips through the /,-,\,|, characters in order to mimic a spinning graphic. I've not seen that since DOS. Maybe the rumors about some of Bill Gates original code still being in there are true! :omg:
I have always hated this new progress control they started since Windows Vista. I had a UI that had multiple frames on a Window and each frame had a progress ctrl. If there are 8 frames, one can imagine how ugly it is to have 8 fluorescent green progress controls each at a different stage. The original blue-stepped progress ctrl was way better. It used to gel well with the overall Win UI elements.
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I have always hated this new progress control they started since Windows Vista. I had a UI that had multiple frames on a Window and each frame had a progress ctrl. If there are 8 frames, one can imagine how ugly it is to have 8 fluorescent green progress controls each at a different stage. The original blue-stepped progress ctrl was way better. It used to gel well with the overall Win UI elements.
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I have always hated this new progress control they started since Windows Vista. I had a UI that had multiple frames on a Window and each frame had a progress ctrl. If there are 8 frames, one can imagine how ugly it is to have 8 fluorescent green progress controls each at a different stage. The original blue-stepped progress ctrl was way better. It used to gel well with the overall Win UI elements.
Divya Rathore wrote:
The original blue-stepped progress ctrl
Original?? Hardly... I still prefer the Windows 3.1 progress bar (solid blue, with black/white text in the middle indicating the percentage complete). With a textual % indicator, if you go away and come back it's much easier to confirm that "progress has been made" than estimating roughly where the bar was when you went to get coffee. Of course, in those days the frustrating thing was waiting a long time for an install, going off to get coffee on the assumption it would all be done when you got back, to be confronted with "Please insert Diskette #2"... you just knew it popped up as you were leaving the room... :doh:
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Why does the Silverlight 5 Tool installation have a text based progress indicator? See: Old School There is the regular progress bar but right beneath it there is also a text based progress indicator that flips through the /,-,\,|, characters in order to mimic a spinning graphic. I've not seen that since DOS. Maybe the rumors about some of Bill Gates original code still being in there are true! :omg:
