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

[Richard Hughes <hughsient gmail com>]

On Sun, 2006-04-09 at 13:57 -0700, Corey Burger wrote:
> 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.

Strongly agree.

> 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.

Agreed.

> 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.

Agreed.

Richard.