function printing progress to terminal while running

[Malte Köster]

Hi there,
I have a function that takes quite a while to execute, so I would  
like it to give some progress indication.
I tried to use printf to print the actual status to the terminal.  
However this does not work, since all the printing is done only after  
the whole function is executed.
Is there a way to print something to the terminal _while_ the  
function is executed?

cheers,
malte