Review Request 109792: Update 'dim display' algorithm.

[Danny Baumann]

Hi,

> (I assume this is about the "dim after n minutes" feature, i only
> remotely tracked the thread)

Yes, it is.

> The config UI says "dim" not "alter brightness", so the behavior should
> simply be to lower the brightness to n% of the present value ("n" being
> little enough to spot the difference but not enough to turn it off) -
> and never brighten up.

If 'dim' does not mean 'alter brightness' (to be lower), what else does 
it mean? ;)
But your expectation of it is interesting, in that it differs from 
Sebastian's (you expect a relative change, Sebastian expects an absolute 
one). It's interesting because those differing expectations are exactly 
the reason why I want to make this configurable.

> If one wants to reach a certain brightness (because the weather alters
> between sun and clouds like every 5 minutes or you move indoors etc.),
> one should use a slider plasmoid or whatever - the "dim" feature is
> certainly not meant for such case (personally i use i as "time to judder
> the mouse" hint ;-)

So basically your use case is 'I don't use it'? ;)
To expand on the use case I have: I often let my laptop 'do things' 
(compile code, download stuff, do a 'yum update', wait for an answer of 
somebody via IM) where immediate attention isn't needed, but it needs to 
be somewhat monitored nevertheless (does the code still compile or did 
it abort because of a typo?, did the answer arrive?, etc.). Being able 
to configure e.g. 'dim to 50% of last brightness' allows me to cover 
that use case.

> =>
> - using a static value for dimming (even precompiled from the brightnes
> base config) is wrong. It's even wronger when it can turn off the screen
> (since neither is what the GUI suggests)

That's what Sebastian is suggesting, though. With current code, this 
static value is '0% of maximum', Sebastian proposes to change it to '5% 
of maximum'.

> - demanding the ability to set a specific ratio or value is also wrong,
> since that does really not seem the idea of the feature.

The idea of the feature, in my view, is 'conserve power while the laptop 
is not in active use'. _How much_ power to conserve is - from my 
understanding - not part of the idea of the feature, but depends on the 
use case.

Regards,

Danny