Help make our progress bar smoother!
When installing and removing software with the Ubuntu Software Center, what is a reasonable fraction of the progress bar to allocate to each step of the process? You can help by compiling a table here of example installations, and a table of example removals. The tables should have columns for your Internet connection speed, the size of the downloaded package file, the speed of your hard disk, and exactly how long each step of the process took. The progress bar will never be perfectly accurate, but the object here is to derive a formula that the Software Center (and later Update Manager) can use, based solely on data it knows from the moment the download starts, to show a progress bar that is as smooth as practical.
Things to work out:
- What are the exact steps in the installation process that should be measured? The table should have columns for each of them.
- What are the exact steps in the removal process that should be measured? Same thing.
- What’s the best standard way for testers to calculate their Internet connection speed?
- What’s the best standard way for testers to calculate their hard disk speed?
Once all that’s decided, is it possible to write a script that (1) will let people choose a package to install, (2) time each step of its installation, (3) produce a MoinMoin-formatted table row with the relevant data, (3) time each step of its removal, and (4) produce a MoinMoin-formatted table row with the data for that too?
Installation
Add the table here
Removal
Add the table here
Analysis
Maths whizzes: Once you have data here to work with, can you work out a formula that semi-reliably estimates how long each step of an installation will take, based on the speed and package size variables? Remember, we’re just looking for a good estimate of the proportions, not estimates of the absolute times.