Issue #267 - Add a "progress bar" to specs using --progress switch (#268)

* Issue #267 - Add a "progress bar"  to specs using --progress switch

* Issue #267 - Make the output more readable using the pretty() function

Author: yoavnir

README.md

@@ -18,7 +18,8 @@ What's New:
 * The unthreaded mode is now the default.
 * While-guard to protect against endless loops in `while` statements.
 * Improved @version.
-* Tab-completion for `specs` command (Linux only).
+* Tab-completion for the `specs` command (Linux only).
+* A new `--progress` command-line switch to allow the user to monitor progress in reading records.
 * Bug fixes
 
 10-May-2024: Version 0.9.2 is here

manpage

@@ -1720,6 +1720,10 @@ Prints out detailed step-by-step information about the evaluation of expressions
 Disables 
 .I while-guard, 
 allowing specifications to enter endless loops.
+.IP "--progress" 3
+While
+.B specs
+is running, will print once a second a message to stderr telling the user how many records have already been processed.
 .IP "--config or -c" 3
 Changes the configuration file from the default 
 .I ~/.specs

specs/docs/cliswitch.md

@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ Main Thread:
 * `--debug-alu-comp` -- Prints out detailed information about the parsing and compiling of expressions (_only in debug build_).
 * `--debug-alu-run` -- Prints out detailed step-by-step information about the evaluation of expressions (_only in debug build_).
 * `--no-while-guard` -- Disables **while-guard**, allowing specifications to enter endless loops.
+* `--progress` -- While **specs**is running, will print once a second a message to stderr telling the user how many records have already been processed.
 * `--timezone` **name** -- convert to and from time-formatted strings using the selected timezone. Valid values are from the TZ database and look like `Africa/Dakar`, `America/Chicago`, `Asia/Calcutta`, `Australia/Sydney`, or `Europe/Berlin`.  A full list of such timezones is available on [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones).  Note that the same timezones can also be configured in the config
 * `--config` **filename** or `-c` **filename** -- overrides the default configuration file which is `~/.specs` on POSIX-based operating systems (Mac OS and Linux) or `%HOME%\specs.cfg` on Windows.
 * `--set` **name=value** or `-s` **name=value** -- sets the named string *name* to the value *value*.

specs/docs/onepage.md

@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ Switches
 * --inCmd or -C -- get the input records from the output of a command specified following this switch.
 * --debug-alu-comp -- Prints out detailed information about the parsing and compiling of expressions (_only in debug build_).
 * --debug-alu-run -- Prints out detailed step-by-step information about the evaluation of expressions (_only in debug build_).
+* --no-while-guard -- Disables **while-guard**, allowing specifications to enter endless loops.
+* --progress -- While **specs**is running, will print once a second a message to stderr telling the user how many records have already been processed.
 * --help -- prints out some help information.
 * --info -- prints out information about this build of **specs**.
 

specs/src/processing/Config.h

@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 	X(bDebugAluCompile,             bool,         false,  0,debug-alu-comp,     true)       \
 	X(bDebugAluRun,                 bool,         false,  0,debug-alu-run,      true)       \
 	X(bNoWhileGuard,                bool,         false,  0,no-while-guard,     true)       \
+	X(bShowProgress,                bool,         false,  0,progress,           true)       \
 	X(configurationFile,            std::string,  "",     c,config,             NEXTARG)    \
 	X(timeZone,                     std::string,  "",     0,timezone,           NEXTARG)    \
 	X(recfm,                        std::string,  "",     0,recfm,              NEXTARG)    \

specs/src/specitems/specItems.cc

@@ -580,6 +580,7 @@ bool itemGroup::processDo(StringBuilder& sb, ProcessingState& pState, Reader* pR
 
 void itemGroup::process(StringBuilder& sb, ProcessingState& pState, Reader& rd, classifyingTimer& tmr)
 {
+	static time_t progressTick = 0;
 	PSpecString ps;
 	unsigned int readerCounter = 1;  // we only got 1.
 
@@ -588,6 +589,13 @@ void itemGroup::process(StringBuilder& sb, ProcessingState& pState, Reader& rd,
 		pState.setFirst();
 		pState.incrementCycleCounter();
 
+		if (g_bShowProgress && (time(nullptr)!=progressTick)) {
+			progressTick = time(nullptr);
+			auto pv = mkValue(pState.getRecordCount());
+			auto pvstr = AluFunc_pretty(pv, nullptr, nullptr, nullptr);
+			std::cerr << "\n\tspecs: Read " << pvstr->getStr() << " records.\n";
+		}
+
 		if (processDo(sb,pState, &rd, tmr, readerCounter)) {
 			bool bPrintSuppressed = pState.printSuppressed(g_printonly_rule);
 			if (bPrintSuppressed && g_keep_suppressed_record) {