Re: [gpm] Re: Gnome 2.16 Module Proposal: GNOME Power Manager

["Corey Burger" <corey burger gmail com>]

On 4/9/06, Luis Villa <luis villa gmail com> wrote:
> On 4/9/06, Andrew Sobala <aes gnome org> wrote:
> > Jaap Haitsma wrote:
> > >>> Richard,
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> As far as I understand the code of GPM splitting up GPM in a "daemon"
> > >>> and a "notication area icon"/applet would not be so hard.
> > >>>
> > >>> They are pretty independent from each other.
> > >>>
> > >>> The "daemon" just has to watch batteries, laptop lid, hardware keys and
> > >>> take appropriate actions etc. If people run the daemon then they get all
> > >>> the power management features.
> > >>>
> > >>> The applet/"notification area icon" just needs to watch the batteries
> > >>> (code of the daemon can be reused :-) )and show the status by changing
> > >>> it's icon and displaying notifications.
> > >>>
> > >>> The only message I see that the "daemon" might want to send to the
> > >>> applet is a message that the system is going to suspend/hibernate and
> > >>> that is already something we want to do to notify other apps that the
> > >>> system is going to suspend/sleep and that they need to take appropriate
> > >>> actions if necessary.
> > >>>
> > >>> So in my opinion it's not that difficult, or am I missing something?
> > >>>
> > >> But what's the point?
> > >>
> > >>
> > >
> > > 1. It's good design to split up parts which are doing different things
> > > ( You can also put all your code in one source file, but that's not good
> > > design )
> > >
> > > 2. An applet would be much more consistent with how GNOME works at the
> > > moment. If I want to add something to the panel I just add there by
> > > doing "Add to panel" and if I want to remove it I choose "Remove from
> > > panel". GNOME unlike windows luckily doesn't put many stuff
> > > automagically in the panel :-)
> > >
> > It's worth pointing out that gnome-power-manager is very much a notifier
> > rather than an interactive applet. If your power cable falls out, it
> > pops up a message saying you've lost power. If you're working away from
> > a power source, there's a battery indicator with how much power you've
> > got left... that disappears when you're fully charged.
> >
> > (At least, that's how it's configured on my system.)
>
> This isn't the default, FWIW. I do agree that making this the default
> behavior  would be the best approach- better, IMHO, than a regular
> panel applet. I only want to know about power when something bad is
> going wrong, which is exactly what the notification area is for. An
> applet is all the time, and so is the current default behavior in the
> notification area- both of which are broken.
>
> Luis

I completely disagree. There are a few good reasons why an icon should
be displayed all the time

1. What state the battery is in is always relevant. Power is the
single most important thing on a laptop. Without it, you are going
nowhere. Whether or not it is a notification icon or an applet is a
detail I won't comment on.

2. A hidden icon is impossible to view. Unlike Windows, you cannot
expand a slider to see hidden icons. They are merely gone. Unless we
fix this bug, icons like power and network state should not be hiding
themselves.

3. Consistency. Now this is normally not an argument I think holds any
weight, but in this instance I think it does. Without a compelling
reason to break consistency with other operating systems/desktop
environments, I don't see why we should.

Corey