[robertlagrant]

If they are tied to actual progress, then at least you have an indication of whether a task is hanging or still (slowly) working.

[WorldMaker]

Except 0/100 isn't a lot of granularity to indicate "still slowly working". (0/1000 or 0/10000 if you show percentages to the second or third decimal point aren't much better either, especially if the working set is in the millions or billions of things to do.)

[robertlagrant]

> especially if the working set is in the millions or billions of things to do

That depends on how fast they get done.

I'm not saying it covers every case, which I think would be the thesis you're countering. I'm just saying they are sometimes useful.

[WorldMaker]

I wasn't saying they didn't have their uses, just that they are generally poor at doing them. Though again we've also never really invented anything better. I'm not saying they aren't useful, just that they aren't great.