How can you enhance process execution visibility in Go with busy indicators?

Managing Process Execution Visibility with Busy Indicators

When executing lengthy child processes in Go, a well-informed user experience is crucial. A simple "Running command and waiting for it to finish..." message may leave users uncertain about the ongoing operation. To address this, we can employ busy indicators to provide real-time feedback.

Implementing a Busy Indicator

One effective approach is to use a separate goroutine to periodically display a busy indicator. In this example, we'll use a dot as an indicator:

<code class="go">func indicator(shutdownCh <-chan struct{}) {
    ticker := time.NewTicker(time.Second)
    defer ticker.Stop()
    for {
        select {
        case <-ticker.C:
            fmt.Print(".")
        case <-shutdownCh:
            return
        }
    }
}</code>

This goroutine will continue printing dots until a signal is sent to terminate it.

Integrating with Process Execution

In our main execution routine, we can start the busy indicator and wait for the child process to complete:

<code class="go">func main() {
    cmd := exec.Command("npm", "install")
    log.Printf("Running command and waiting for it to finish...")

    // Start indicator:
    shutdownCh := make(chan struct{})
    go indicator(shutdownCh)

    err := cmd.Run()

    close(shutdownCh) // Signal indicator() to terminate

    fmt.Println()
    log.Printf("Command finished with error: %v", err)
}</code>

When the process completes, the indicator goroutine will be terminated, and an end-of-line character will be printed.

Enhancing User Experience

To further improve the user experience, you can customize the indikator. For example, you could print a new line after a certain number of dots:

<code class="go">func indicator(shutdownCh <-chan struct{}) {
    ticker := time.NewTicker(time.Second)
    defer ticker.Stop()
    for i := 0; ; {
        select {
        case <-ticker.C:
            fmt.Print(".")
            if i++; i%5 == 0 {
                fmt.Println()
            }
        case <-shutdownCh:
            return
        }
    }
}</code>

This will create a more visually appealing indication of the ongoing process.

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