RE: [bitbake-devel] [PATCH 2/3] knotty.py: Give the setscene tasks their own progress bar

[Peter Kjellerstedt <peter.kjellerstedt@axis.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Purdie <richard.purdie@linuxfoundation.org>
> Sent: den 7 mars 2022 16:48
> To: Peter Kjellerstedt <peter.kjellerstedt@axis.com>; bitbake-
> devel@lists.openembedded.org
> Subject: Re: [bitbake-devel] [PATCH 2/3] knotty.py: Give the setscene
> tasks their own progress bar
> 
> On Mon, 2022-03-07 at 14:36 +0100, Peter Kjellerstedt wrote:
> > From: Peter Kjellerstedt <peter.kjellerstedt@axis.com>
> >
> > In commit 8055ec36 (knotty: Improve setscene task display) the setscene
> > tasks got their own line in the task output. However, the progress bar
> > code does not handle newlines in its widgets, so the length of the
> > setscene line was included when calculating how much space is available
> > for the progress bar of the running tasks, making it much too short.
> >
> > Instead of trying to teach the progress bar code to handle newlines,
> > give the setscene tasks their own progress bar.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Peter Kjellerstedt <peter.kjellerstedt@axis.com>
> > ---
> >  bitbake/lib/bb/ui/knotty.py | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++++------------
> >  1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
> 
> I'd much prefer not to add yet another confusing progress bar as it will
> just confuse users more. The real progress to watch is the real tasks 
> one and that will increase as setscene tasks are covered.

Hmm, my first solution was without the progress bar. However, when 
I realized that a progress bar could be used instead, I thought it 
made sense.

Consider the case where you are making a build which has almost 
everything in the sstate cache, then the current output is less 
optimal. I.e., the first line will show a counter increasing, but 
no progress bar, while the second line shows a progress bar that 
basically goes from 0% to 100% in one step once all the setscene 
tasks are done.

> Adding this draws the user's attention away from where they probably want
> to be looking. If you know otherwise, you don't need the progress bar IMO.

Need is a strong word when it comes to the progress bars. Personally 
I like to watch them move along. :) I find it easier to get a view 
of the current progress by looking at the bars rather than the 
corresponding numbers.

> Cheers,
> 
> Richard

//Peter