Is It Normal for Progress Bar Not to Move When Repairing Permissions?

I apologize if this has been answered before. I searched prior to posting and could not find the answer. I've noticed that the progress bar in Disk Utility does not move when Repairing Permissions. A small bit of blue just sits at the far left end of the bar during the whole repair process without moving incrementally to the right. Then all of a sudden, the repair is complete. Everything seems to work and the repair operation is completed and it spits out the usual complement of messages about the permissions having been repaired (I understand that many of these messages are just kind of meant to be ignored).

I just had the occasion to work with my old flat panel iMac running Tiger and I did a permission repair and noticed that the progress bar dutifully indicated the progress of the repairs and did so very accurately. It worked the way I expect a progress bar to work.

Did something change with Snow Leopard or is it a quirk with my particular installation? Thanks.

Regards,
Steve M.