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Ask Slashdot: Why Is It So Hard To Make An Accurate Progress Bar?

Posted by Soulskill on from the this-post-is-98%-complete dept.

hyperorbiter writes "How come after 25 years in the tech industry, someone hasn't worked out how to make accurate progress bars? This migration I'm doing has sat on 'less than a minute' for over 30 minutes. I'm not an engineer; is it really that hard?"

8 of 736 comments (clear)

  1. it's because by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment loading ...

  2. Yes. by kc9jud · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes it is. And to be fair, it's a lot more accurate than Nostradamus ever was.

  3. Re:no, it's easy. by dotHectate · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know someone is going to take your suggestion literally as a tutorial on how to implement a progress bar - later they'll come back with some mystical crash always happening at 0%.

    --
    Patience is a virtue, but haste is my life.
  4. Physics! by ignavus · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can work out where you are (% completed) or how fast you are going (rate at which the progress bar is growing), but not both at the same time.

    It's simple quantum mechanics.

    --
    I am anarch of all I survey.
  5. Re:Can't Go Backwards by The+Snowman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes and it's those--as well as those that dance left and right for no damn reason--that really piss me off.

    You mean like this one? http://xkcd.com/612/.

    --
    24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
  6. We will have .... by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... a functional progress bar in 5 years.

    No, wait. It seems to have stalled.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  7. Re:Can't Go Backwards by ibennetch · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think I prefer going backwards to what I once saw on (what I remember as) a Microsoft Office installation, probably 15 years ago. The progress bar ever so slowly crept upwards...98, 99, 100% done...then 101, and so on. It finally locked up somewhere after 140%.

  8. Re:Can't Go Backwards by telchine · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure step 5 of 12 might take way longer then the rest but at least it is honest. It also helps to tell the user what it is currently doing.

    Reticulating splines?