I have a problem with the way the progress bar is (was) used in the 
Flash package, but the problem is more general.
In general I consider it a bad idea to integrate UI specific parts in 
code that is doing such low level things as reading a file. This is 
exactly what the progress bar is doing in the flash reader. This makes 
the low level code dependent on the higher level UI code, which is in 
my view a bad thing.
I would rather have a mechanism where the reader uses a model object 
(e.g. a value holder or a more modern mechanism) which it keeps up to 
date with respect to the progress. Developers can then decide based on 
their specific use whether they need to show a progress bar or any 
other applicable UI element, which gets its information by observing 
the model.
On the same grounds I disapprove of low level code setting the cursor, 
which currently happens in certain file operations.
I have developed an application with Squeak and have run into the above 
problems a couple of times and found it very annoying. I ended up 
adapting low level code just for the sake of my app's UI. This makes it 
difficult for me to keep my app up to date with the latest image 
version.
I propose we start eliminating such code and wherever necessary replace 
it by model events and such.

Rudi Angela

On dinsdag, aug 12, 2003, at 08:50 Europe/Amsterdam, Marcus Denker 
wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 11, 2003 at 10:07:48PM -0400, adspitz at yahoo.ca wrote:
>> from preamble:
>>
>> "Change Set:		FlashCleanup
>> Date:			31 July 2003
>> Author:			Adam Spitz
>>
>> Recategorizes some stuff in order to turn the Flash code into a single
>> PackageInfo package with no external dependents.
>>
>> Notice that this changeset lumps ProgressMorph in with the Flash 
>> stuff.
>> I think this is a bad idea, but I don't know what to do about it. Is
>> there some reason why we shouldn't have a progress-bar thingy that
>> doesn't depend on Flash?"
>> !
> Hmm... Diego posted a changeset long ago:
>
> [ENH] ProgressBarMorph-dgd ( [cd][er][et][sm][approved] )
>
> This cs does:
>
> - rename of FlashProgressMorph to ProgressBarMorph
> - change of ProgressBarMorph (former FlashProgressMorph) class 
> category to
>   Morphic-Widgets
> - update of references of FlashProgressMorph
>
> This will be included in 3.7a
>
>
> -- 
> Marcus Denker marcus at ira.uka.de  -- Squeak! http://squeak.de
>
>