>> fprintf(['off\n']); for n=1:10, pause(0.5); fprintf(['\b\ron \n']); pause(0.5); fprintf(['\b\roff\n']); end
on
off
on
off
...

The multiple \b solution (+repmat, if this makes things simpler), in contrast, overwrites the last line with either on or off, so that the progress message is updated in-place, rather than adding a new line of output to the CW. In other words: the \b hack avoids that previous messages scroll out on top of the CW. Nevertheless, thx for \r, I was not yet aware of that.

step 1:

>> fprintf('progress: ..... 50%%\n'); 
progress: ..... 50%

step 2:

>> fprintf('progress: ..... 50%%\n'); fprintf(['\b\b\b\b\b. 60%%\n']);
progress: ...... 60%

similarly, step 3 (blinking text):

>> fprintf(['off\n']); for n=1:10, pause(0.5); fprintf(['\b\b\b\bon \n']); pause(0.5); fprintf(['\b\b\b\boff\n']); end
on   (toggles on/off each second)

step 4 (in a loop):

>> fprintf('progress:  00%%\n'); for n=1:10, pause(1); fprintf(['\b\b\b\b\b. %d%%\n'],10*n); end
progress: .....well, this text will change once a second

The pause command in the example represents a sequence of time-consuming operations. Note that we don’t need any timer objects, GUI callbacks, class events, Java, com.mathworks.etc here. Just raw C format specifications, doing their dirty deeds since Matlab 5 (or earlier). The general strategy should also work with cprintf, so thanks Yair we can finally see those progressbars grow in any color.

However, don’t feel stressed!-) What you gave us is already cool enough and deeply impressive. After all, my very personal approach is to use the command window only to display plain text, because everything else is (was?) so much easier to display with GUI elements (which already *can* interpret basic HTML in their String property). But from a sportsman’s viewpoint… wow, you are miles ahead!

However, it seems that R2011b (just released) has broken cprintf. I hope it can be fixed soon.

Good work!