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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Feel question
From:       Uwe Thiem <uwe () uwix ! alt ! na>
Date:       2000-03-01 6:44:19
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On Tue, 29 Feb 2000, Roberto Alsina wrote:

> 
> Hello,
> 
> 	I am doing some large changes in KRN, and the thing that I am
> doing now are progressbars, to show progress of downloads and such.
> 
> 	I am doing this in a multithreaded fashion, so I have two choices
> of how to do things.
> 
> a) Every time a piece of data comes, trigger an update on the bar
> b) Trigger updates on the bar once in a while, say, every 1/5th of a
>    second.
> 
> Pro a):
> 
> It provides a smooth progressbar, in that it goes through all the steps,
> and even if the download is very quick, it still looks like the
> progressbar worked. That makes it feel fast and smooth.

Con a):
If you not only provide a progress bar but also some numbers about the
download rate, that display won't be updated if the download stalls. That
looks very strange (like in old kfm).

> 
> Pro b)
> 
> The progressbar update events don't take CPU from the download, so, while
> it feels slower on very fast downloads (because the bar appears, does
> nothing for a fraction of a second, then vanishes, and yes, that feel
> slower, I tested it a bit), it actually works *faster* (I measured it ;-)

If the download is so fast you shouldn't show a progress bar at all like
in QProgressDialog.

> 
> So, in the end, the question is: should it BE fast, or FEEL fast? It's a
> tough choice :-)

I'm all for a).

Uwe

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Uwe Thiem                                        Tel: +264 - 061 - 241223
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