--- a/NEWS	Thu Nov 03 05:07:51 2011 -0400
+++ b/NEWS	Thu Nov 03 05:30:45 2011 -0400
@@ -72,8 +72,8 @@
  ** Other new functions added in 3.6.0:
 
     is_dq_string      python 
-    is_sq_string      zscore
-    nthargout   
+    is_sq_string      waitbar
+    nthargout         zscore
     
  ** Deprecated functions.
 

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/scripts/plot/waitbar.m	Thu Nov 03 05:30:45 2011 -0400
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2011 John W. Eaton
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+## your option) any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn  {Function File} {@var{h} =} waitbar (@var{frac}, @var{msg})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {@var{h} =} waitbar (@var{frac}, @var{h}, @var{msg})
+## Craete a waitbar and display an optional message.
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: jwe
+
+function h = waitbar (varargin)
+
+  msg = " ";
+
+  h = 0;
+
+  if (nargin > 0)
+
+    frac = varargin{1};
+    varargin(1) = [];
+
+    if (! (isnumeric (frac) && isscalar (frac) && frac >= 0 && frac <= 1))
+      error ("waitbar: frac must be in between 0 and 1");
+    endif
+
+    if (numel (varargin) > 0 && ishandle (varargin{1}))
+      h = varargin{1};
+      varargin(1) = [];
+      ## FIXME -- also check that H is really a waitbar?
+      if (! isfigure (h))
+        error ("handle must be a waitbar object");
+      endif
+    endif
+
+    if (numel (varargin) > 0)
+      msg = varargin{1};
+      varargin(1) = [];
+      if (! ischar (msg))
+        error ("waitbar: msg must be a character string");
+      endif
+    endif
+
+    if (rem (numel (varargin), 2) != 0)
+      error ("waitbar: invalid number of property-value pairs");
+    endif
+
+    if (h)
+      p = findobj (h, "type", "patch");
+      if (p)
+        delete (p);
+      endif
+      ax = findobj (h, "type", "axes");
+    else
+      h = __go_figure__ (Inf, "position", [250, 500, 400, 100],
+                         "numbertitle", "off",
+                         "handlevisibility", "callback",
+                         varargin{:});
+
+      ax = axes ("parent", h, "xtick", [], "ytick", [],
+                 "xlim", [0, 1], "ylim", [0, 1],
+                 "xlimmode", "manual", "ylimmode", "manual",
+                 "position", [0.1, 0.3, 0.8, 0.2]);
+    endif
+
+    patch (ax, [0, frac, frac, 0], [0, 0, 1, 1], [0, 0.35, 0.75]);
+    title (ax, msg);
+    drawnow ();
+
+  else
+    print_usage ();
+  endif
+
+endfunction
+
+%!demo
+%! h = 0;
+%! for i = 0:0.01:1
+%!   if (h)
+%!     waitbar (i, h, sprintf ("%.2f%%", 100*i));
+%!   else
+%!     h = waitbar (i, sprintf ("%.2f%%", 100*i));
+%!   endif
+%! endfor