ajaxorg/cloud9 — Issue #860: npm install doesn't indicate it's working
Author: gjtorikian
Created: 2012-01-25 22:50:05+00:00
State: open
Labels: console, improvement

Do an `npm install` on a repo that requires several dependencies -- say, nodemanual.org.

After you hit enter, nothing happens. The user begins to question the project's package.json, Cloud9 IDE, or his sanity. Finally, after about 90 seconds, npm spits out everything it installed.

It seems like the console is explicitly waiting for the incoming message to finish, before presenting it to the user. This is in contrast to a regular command line install, which shows the messages as they arrive. For the sake of usability, we should either:

1. Show the messages as they arrive
2. Gray out the console, or otherwise show a "loading" message

Obviously this goes beyond just npm messages, so a general purpose solution should be worked on.