can_suspend_to_{x}

[Danny Kukawka]

On Saturday 06 May 2006 12:14, Richard Hughes wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-05-06 at 11:55 +0200, Danny Kukawka wrote:
> > On Saturday 06 May 2006 10:44, Richard Hughes wrote:
> > > On Sat, 2006-05-06 at 10:28 +0200, Danny Kukawka wrote:
> > > > On Friday 05 May 2006 22:16, Richard Hughes wrote:
> >
> > [...]
> > But you can't force any project to change this and IMO e.g. in case of
> > KDE to change the name of this methodes is a step in the wrong direction
> > because the user don't know what the difference between hibernate and
> > suspend really is (And IMO there also e.g. no good translation for both
> > in german. What is the difference between 'Stromsparmodus' for Suspend
> > and 'Ruhemodus' for Hibernate. They (and for me also the english
> > versions) are not self-explanatory).
>
> Maybe choose better translations, sorry I'm speak no German.

IMO there is no better _self-explanatory_ translation.

> > Then name it e.g. suspend-to-storage/network or what ever.
>
> No can do, as HAL just needs a generic name that is not implementation
> specific.

IMO this is currently, as the kernel interface, generic enough. But you can 
name it also simply suspend-to-storage.

> > > Also, having different names mean developers have to manually remember
> > > the association between two forms of terminology.

Really difficult for a developer.

> Nope, not yet but it's on my list. I'm about 1/3 the way through, but i
> have to do this in-between revision slots :-)

Btw. I would like to know which projects ...

> > Clear up means what? Discuss a common name or use hibernate/suspend? And
> > again: which projects?
>
> Use hibernate and suspend. There's no point starting a flame-fest and
> trying to get a new word debated and accepted by all.

Because you IMO discussed this only with GNOME guys or with gnome projects 
associated ppl, but this should be desktop independent.

> Then my mum must be less clever than a 7 year old child. She'll be well
> chuffed when I tell her that. :-)
>
> The point here, is that a person shouldn't have to understand what RAM
> is, and why it's faster to access than disk etc.

IMO all users have some minimal knowledge about what a disk and RAM is. And 
how did he know if hibernate or suspend is faster? Btw. the user don't need 
to know _why_ one of both is faster, but he maybe know that data in RAM of 
his machine is lost if battery is empty or removed.

> > Maybe, but IMO there is no need. A developer know the difference between
> > this keys and IMO they repesent the information from the kernel
> > interface. And I can't see there suspend/hibernate ... this is IMO more
> > confusing ;-)
>
> Yes, but it's not just developers who query these keys. People having
> problems with suspend and hibernate need to know what HAL can do, and I
> really don't want to explain to yet another user how s2d == hibernate.

But the other projects, which would use suspend2disk/ram as names should 
explain this to their users? You move the problem from your project to others 
and not more - you solve with this change no problem. For your user it should 
be complete uninteresting how this is mapped from a desktop application to 
related HAL method and it should not really be a problem to explain a user, 
if really needed, this connection  (use FAQ or text modules for your 
mailer ;-)).

Danny