I agree totally with Holger. It is much easier to convert raw data to less
precise and/or more humanly readable formats than vica-versa. Plus,
the data is usually something you only look at when troubleshooting or
analyzing performance, not something that is of interest to the casual
user.
If you want an alternative more lay person format, I'm sure you could
rather easily develop another web page that suits your purposes and
contribute it back to the project. In fact, if you start by thinking
of your audience and purpose, the ideal summary page for the lay
person is likely to have many other changes beyond just time and
storage formats.
Holger Parplies wrote at about 21:18:54 +0200 on Friday, May 15, 2009:
> Hi,
>
> Bharat Mistry wrote on 2009-05-15 15:57:57 +0100 [Re: [BackupPC-users]
> [SUGGESTION] "Duration/mins" not in decimal format]:
> > and 31.21 GB instead of 31214312331231 bytes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> ("." instead of "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", too? :)
>
> > Ability to email a list of files backed up per host "wood" me kool too.....
>
> thank you for making this point (though I don't suppose you *wanted* to make
> it).
>
> > On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 7:39 AM, Boniforti Flavio <flavio AT piramide DOT
> > ch>wrote:
> >
> > > I am not used to consider minutes in decimal format (like 36.8 minutes).
>
> I don't think you are supposed to. The point of the web page, as I understand
> it, is to give you a rough idea of what is going on. Seeing a list of figures
> 36.8, 37.1, 35.9, 36.4, 242.8, 37.3 ... makes the full backup (or problem, or
> whatever) stand out much more than if you obfuscate it into 4h2m48s. A list
> like 36.1, 36.1, 36.2, 36.3, 36.7, 36.8 ... gives you much more of an
> impression of how the times are developping than 36m6s, 36m12s, ... would.
> If you want more than a rough idea (or rather, if you have better use of your
> time than staring at the statistics), you'll try to automatically process the
> numbers, and parsing "4h2m48s" into something you can calculate with will be
> nothing less than a nuisance (and, yes, if you're backuppc on the BackupPC
> server, you can parse the backups files, but if you only have HTTP access to
> one client's host page, you can't). Similarly, you won't enjoy the reduced
> precision of 31.21 GB. If you are generating an email summary, for instance,
> you can always convert the numbers to whatever format you want, and it's
> still
> easier to convert 242.8 minutes than to translate "4hours 2mins 48secs" to a
> different language or shift the whitespace around to match your taste.
>
> > > Would it be possible to convert that data into time format (like
> > > 36m48sec) and extend the same thing to hours (not anymore 242.8minutes,
> > > but instead 4hours 2mins 48sec)?
>
> Yes, but who's the target audience? Are you saying you *need* to know more
> than "my full backups take somewhere between 4 and 5 hours"? If it's less
> than
> 4h17m25s it's ok, but if it's more, you'll need to speed it up somehow?
>
> As for the seconds, I'd argue to rather drop them(*). They're almost
> certainly
> below the exactness of the measurement (well, yes, the backup *did* take 36
> minutes and 13.7 seconds, but that the next backup took 36 minutes and 50
> seconds probably tells you more about the state of the machines and the link
> at that time than about the backup itself in relation to the other one).
> Measure with a micrometer, mark with chalk, cut with an axe.
>
> Regards,
> Holger
>
> (*) Well, no, keep them. They don't hurt as long as they're just decimal
> minutes :).
>
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