[whatwg] Status bars and progress indicators

[Ian Hickson]

On Thu, 9 Sep 2004, Matthew Thomas wrote:
> 
> A standard <progressmeter> (or <progress>) element might be useful, so 
> that non-page progress indication can be more consistent, instead of 
> every app developer coming up with their own zany animation. For 
> backward compatibility, it could be a container element, like this:
> 
>     <progressmeter>(86 %)</progressmeter> Uploaded 46 K of 54 K
> 
> A graphical UA would take the "(86 %)", strip out the non-numeric stuff (i.e.
> everything except the "86" and the "%"), recognize it as 0.86, and replace the
> element with a graphical progress meter representing that fraction:
>      ________
>     [(((((((():] Uploaded 46 K of 54 K
> 
> If such an element is introduced, a <gauge> element should be introduced at
> exactly the same time, so that the Web doesn't fall into the same trap Mac OS
> did when it had one but not the other, and developers were confusing people by
> using progress indicators to indicate non-progress fractions (like relevance
> and quota usage).
> 
>     <dt><a href="http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/webforms2.html">Web
>     Forms 2.0 - notes and comments</a></dt>
>     <dd class="uri">http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/webforms2.html</dd>
>     <dd>Relevance: <gauge>14 %</gauge></dd>
> 
> Which in a graphical UA would produce:
> 
>     _Web Forms 2.0 - notes and comments_
>         http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/webforms2.html
>         Relevance: [##:::::::::]

Agreed. I've added a placeholder section for now while I look at all the 
feedback that came on this thread (I saw there was a lot of it!). Once 
I've read all the messages on this thread I'll write up a basic proposal 
for people to comment on.

And yeah, I agree that progress and gauge are separate and should both be 
supported.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'