Battery Monitor revamp

[Martin Klapetek]

On 5/28/13, Thomas Pfeiffer <colomar at autistici.org> wrote:
> On 28.05.2013 12:04, Àlex Fiestas wrote:
>> For what is worth (and from the Solid side of things).
>>
>> Batteries have improved a lot since last time we discussed this issue,
>> back on the days a high CPU round of 10min would drain huge percentage
>> of the power in your battery, hence the estimation was really bad.
>> Additionally the estimation was done in most of the cases in the
>> software side so calculation was always bogus. Now days the situation
>> has changed though.
>>
>> Batteries are way smarter than they used to be, even the stupid ones are
>> kinda smart though. In most laptops sold in the last years you can find
>> batteries that implement  SBS (Smart Battery System) or similar (there
>> is another one I can't recall).
>> Additionally battery capacity has grown a lot while cpu power
>> requirements have decreased (specially since Intel Sandy Bridge) so a
>> CPU pike of 10mins will not affect that much the estimation time (and
>> systems like SBS are smart enough to prevent that).
>>
>> Maybe usability wise showing the remaining time is not recommendable or
>> it is confusing, but technically the situation has clearly changed and
>> the remaining time can now be shown accurately.
>
> I cannot see any usability disadvantage of showing a remaining time if
> it is accurate. If we can get the time with an accuracy of e.g. 10
> minutes, it is useful from a usability perspective to see the remaining
> time with a precision of 10 minutes.
>
> Do we know whether a "smart" battery (i.e. managed by SBS or similar) is
> present? If we do and the presence of SBS or similar does indeed offer
> us accurate remaining time estimation even with fluctuating consumption,
> I see no reason not to show it in this case.

You guys have heard about "moving average" right?

Quoting from wiki[1]:

"A moving average is commonly used with time series data to smooth out
short-term fluctuations and highlight longer-term trends or cycles" -
ie. no random jumping from hours to minutes and back.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_average

Cheers
-- 
Martin Klapetek | KDE Developer