>><snip>
>>
>>>>>The PROGRESS_STATUS() aleways returns .T. but can use the m.tnum_records and m.tnum_processed variables to display a percentage of total records processed so far in some format, numeric, progress bar, whatever.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks!
>>>
>>>While that is interesting, the problems with it are that the index created that way will not be the smallest it can be. Indexing will take longer that way too, and not because of the display update, but because updating indexes takes longer than building from scratch.
>>>
>>>The quickest possible way - and that excludes all progress bar approaches I've ever seen - is to direct TALK and NOTIFY to a custom window and let VFP do it's own internal display.
>>
>>My way allows for an elegant display of progress at minimal cost (iro index size or time) using todays computers.
>
>Elegant and minimal are in the eye of the beholder.

1. The use of a progress bar and other types of animation to show the status of long running jobs is a standard accepted approach with modern interface design.

2.The index created in this way is as small as its going to get because they are, in fact, created from scratch and the time to do so is the same as doing a straight INDEX ON command. The only additional overhead is the initial COPY TO command. On reflection that could be avoided by creating a new, empty, target file and doing the append into that. Then delete the original file and rename the new target file. Now you have the same performance and index size plus animation.