On Sat, 26 Apr 2008, Shawn Walker wrote: >> If the application is in charge, then I will have my application disable >> all OS power saving modes while it is maximized since want my application to >> be fast. When my application is minimized I will enable all power saving >> features in order to encourage use of my application. > > That's where opportunities come in for the OS or applications being > able to tell the OS that "I'm not busy right now, so I don't need > extra power".
With properly written applications, the OS already knows if the program is not busy right now. No new interfaces are required. Usually the application knows even less than the OS about user behavior. Even the OS only sees low level things like mouse input, keyboard input, X11 communication activity, and network traffic. The X11 window manager (not part of "OS") knows which other applications have focus or are iconized. >> What does the application know that I (the user) don't? > > It knows when its busy or trying to do something. The application may > be performing operations that the user has no awareness of. > > The short of it to me is this: > > What is more efficient? You, as the user, having to tell the system > each time that you expect maximum performance from an application, or > making the system smart enough to figure that out and do the right > thing in the first place? The user needs to ultimately be in charge. There is no way that the system can know if I am on a tight schedule and need to get the corporate presentation done ASAP, or if I am just idly puttering around on the plane since I have nothing better to do. Please keep in mind that your power management software does not just run on laptops. It also runs on powerful multi-processor workstations, runs on rack-mounted servers, and may be executed on a server with 512 CPU cores and 500 disk drives. User control of power management is imperative. Bob ====================================== Bob Friesenhahn bfriesen at simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/ GraphicsMagick Maintainer, http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/
