[Wtr-general] What does IE.down_load_time really measure?

[Paul Carvalho]

I've got a script that walks through a simple web application and retrieves
the page size and page download times.  (By "simple web app" I mean no
frames and only about a dozen pages - mostly reports and a Personal Settings
page.)  The script outputs these values to an output CSV file so that I can
then chart them in Excel.

I watched the script run and complete just now and noticed something
interesting.  I watched the "Home" page take a second or so to come up but
when I checked the output file, it recorded that it took 0.015 seconds
according to "ie.down_load_time".

That didn't seem right to me, so I added a second time check to the script.
Like this:

# Begin code snippet:
      ...
      secondary_page_timer = Time.now
      ie.button(:name, /UpdateSettingsButton/).click

      $f.puts page_title  + ',' + ie.html.length.to_s + ',' +
ie.down_load_time.to_s + ',' + (Time.now - secondary_page_timer).to_s
      ...
# End snippet

Now when I rerun the script and check the output file, I see the following:
> Page Load Time 1 (s) = 0.015
> Page Load Time 2 (s) = 1.075

That's a big difference!  I should mention that this is Watir 1.4.1.  I just
happened to be using this machine right now.  I haven't tried it with any
1.5.x gem yet.

Any thoughts or suggestions?  The Watir API Reference doesn't give any
insights into how the "down_load_time" attribute works.
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