jk_timest

Introduction

This python module aids in estimating the remaining time of a (long running) process. For that purpose it provides the following class:

• TimeEstimation

Information about this module can be found here:

• github.org
• pypi.python.org

How to Use the Time Estimation Class

In order to use the time estimation class first create a properly initialized instance. You at least have to tell the object how many processing steps you will have. (This information is required in order to be able to calculate the remaining time during processing.)

Example:

# initialize the time estimation object
te = TimeEstimator(PROCESS_DURATION_STEPS, 0, 5, 5)

The arguments have the following meaning:

1. (required) The maximum number of steps your task will require.
2. (optional) The current position. This will be interesting for you if you resume processing and therefor start at a specific position and not at zero.
3. (optional) The minimum number of seconds we want to have data collected until we can do a reasonable estimation.
4. (optional) The minimum number of data values we want to have collected until we can do a reasonable estimation.

Then - during processing - call tick() whenever you completed a processing step.

# inform the estimation object that we did something
te.tick()

In order to estimate the remainig time call getETAStr() and print the result.

Example:

# estimate remaining time and print it
print(te.getETAStr())

Estimation Output

The method getETAStr() provides the following arguments:

• EnumTimeEstimationOutputStyle mode : Select the output mode. (See below.)
• bool bSmooth : This value is True by default and therefor enables smoothing by default. (See below.)
• str default : A default string to output if no time estimation can be given (yet). Here None is the default.

This method supports the following estimation output styles:

• EnumTimeEstimationOutputStyle.EASY : Print either something like "X days Y hours" or something like "HH:MM:SS" indicating hours, minutes and seconds. (This is the default.)
• EnumTimeEstimationOutputStyle.FORMAL : Print the remaining time in a strict format: "DD:HH:MM:SS"

Smoothing will result in averaging over the last 20 estimation values calculated. This is a very simple implementation but it works quite well and reduces fluctuations of values if the individual processing steps vary too much in their duration.

Contact Information

This is Open Source code. That not only gives you the possibility of freely using this code it also allows you to contribute. Feel free to contact the author(s) of this software listed below, either for comments, collaboration requests, suggestions for improvement or reporting bugs:

• Jürgen Knauth: jknauth@uni-goettingen.de, pubsrc@binary-overflow.de

License

This software is provided under the following license:

• Apache Software License 2.0