[Kde-hardware-devel] Review Request 122048: Don't suspend when closing the lid and an external monitor is connected

[Achim Bohnet]

On Wednesday 14 Jan 2015 12:49:00 Kai Uwe Broulik wrote:
> > On Jan. 14, 2015, 12:29 nachm., Sebastian Kügler wrote:
> > > I really like this feature.
> > > 
> > > However, I think that UI wise, it looks a bit unpolished. It adds two
> > > checkboxes with long texts, that even I, being a domain expert, need
> > > some thinking to understand.
> > > 
> > > I wonder if we should offer these actions at all, or whether we should
> > > enable the features by default. They do seem useful, I can construct a
> > > use-case pretty easily, but we may get away without the UI options,
> > > still keeping the config keys, perhaps. Then wait until someone
> > > complains or reports unexpected behavior, and then rethink adding the
> > > options.
> > > 
> > > Inline, a few niggles about naming when reading the code and trying to
> > > understand it, nothing really major.
> That's why I added the usability group. :)
> 
> You are right that actually neither of these features really needs to be
> optional. Turning off that "Do not inhibit on lid close" (I guess nobody
> really knew from the UI what that really does anyway) is just tupid in my
> opinion. Why would you ever *not* want your notebook to suspend when you,
> all by yourself, close the lid?! That's no automatism interrupting you,
> it's you closing the lid.
> 
> Usecases I could imagine you not wanting to suspend when closing the lid is
> while watching a movie on your TV or when you put your notebook into a
> docking station, but that's what the other option is for. Using your laptop
> as a jukebox on a party might want you to play music, close it so nobody
> spills beer on the keyboard and not have it suspend (Amarok eg. allows to
> inhibit suspend during playback) but I think most people would just opt to
> having the lid opened a bit rather than messing with complicated settings
> they probably don't know exist in the first place.

So instead of 'hiding' this option in a kcm that the average user maybe never 
visits, how about delivering it right to the user eyes?  For every external 
monitor connected only on the first lid close, ask the user what to do right 
now and on future lid close:

       [Suspend]  [Ignore]

with a 'standard' 30 sec countdown (on user request what's selected by default 
could be controlled with a config option without kcm item).   If the user
changes it's mind, the user has to visit the kscreen kcm to change the
default action for this monitor.

[snip-snap]

Achim
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