Re. warning users of delays

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

     It occurred to me that the textual warnings we all suggested are fine
     as far as they go, but miss an important point: why not _show_ the
     audience how long the process is? The Macintosh interface guidelines
     suggest that any reasonably long process should be accompanied by a
     pop up "fuel gauge" or "bar chart" that shows the progress of the
     operation. The basic principle is to display an empty bar at the start
     of the operation, then fill in the bar progressively as the operation
     moves along. (This need not be precise... viewers needn't know whether
     the operation is 50% vs. 51.5% complete, just that it's approximately
     half done.) If accompanied by a note such as "this will take 30
     minutes", the user can estimate how much time remains. This is far
     more informative than the Windows Hourglass cursor, which means "I've
     crashed, please call my mother and administer the three-finger salute"
     as often as it means "wait a tick, I'll be with you soon". On the
     positive side, better programmers build this visual indicator into any
     software, whatever the operating system, so let's not start a
     Mac/Windows flame war please.

     --Geoff Hart   geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
     #8^{)}