Suggestion for underlying design of power settings infrastructure (was: Re: Power Management and OpenMoko - third power setting)

[Michael Shiloh]

What I'd really like to see is a flexible power setting system which 
allows for an arbitrary number of modes and complete flexibility 
regarding what is or isn't powered in each mode, and what causes each 
mode to be entered or exited.

I don't expect this to be a menu option (frankly I don't care about 
menus at all), but I strongly urge that the underlying infrastructure 
will be designed in a completely unrestrictive manner.

Later, application and framework developers will chose how much or how 
little  of this flexibility to expose in the menus. And, programmer 
users will be able to expand these menus to include options of their 
choice by modifying the source as needed.

Limiting power modes to two or three modes, and then fixing what is or 
isn't powered in each mode, is akin to greying out areas of a menu in 
certain programs, thinking "if the user is doing this, they will never 
want to do that at the same time".

Don't do my thinking for me. If I wanted that, I'd use one of those 
other two operating systems. I came to Linux to think for myself.

I hope it's not too late.

Michael

maddog wrote:
> I have been using the NEO 1973 with the Trolltech software on it hung 
> around my neck with a laynard.  The phone would discharge in less than a 
> day, just being on standby.
> 
> I then noticed that it would go into some mode accidently, so I started 
> locking the phone.  This cut power consumption greatly.
> 
> However, the phone still lit up brightly every time the screen was 
> touched, and took about 20 seconds to go back to being blank.
> 
> I suggest a third mode where the phone is locked, and only hitting the 
> alternate button (or briefly holding the power button) OR having some 
> incoming event (such as a call) would cause the phone to light up and 
> unlock.  As long as all that was happening was something hitting the 
> screen, the screen would not light up nor would the phone unlock.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> maddog