Update on DeviceKit

[Danny Kukawka]

On Mittwoch, 7. Mai 2008, David Zeuthen wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 18:49 +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote:
[...]
> > The license of libsmbios means it's not going to go into X, so it's
> > going to need to be some external callout /anyway/.
>
> Has someone explained this problem to the libsmbios developers (e.g.
> Dell) and asked them to relicense it? Maybe that would be useful.
>
> (Oh, btw, it's C++ too. Fun for the whole family!)

What's the problem with C++ ?

> The point is not so much about implementation details; the point is more
> about having the right bits provide the right interfaces at the right
> level in the stack. In this case, I'm convinced the only sane way is to
> expose backlight controls is via X. If we were to continue exporting
> interfaces like this in a separate D-Bus service then we'd have to
>
>  - Know about multiple monitors. (Oh no, what if there's four monitors
>    with two different sessions? X can deal with this.)

For basic powermanagement you don't necessarily need to take care of this 
(e.g. on a Laptop). Why not providing a basic interface as now in HAL that 
can also be used from non X applications (e.g. on a server display, in the 
server section powermanagement is also important) nobody force X applications 
to use it. They can use if they want the X layer (if this is really 
necessary).

>  - What next, should a hypothetical D-Bus service expose DPMS controls
>    tool? Oh, what about gamma and color correction? Why not resolution
>    while we're at it?

Nobody sayed that and nobody ever requested it. 

> and the list goes on. It retrospect, I guess, it was a mistake to put
> backlight controls in HAL but it sure was practical, useful etc. because
> there was no interface in X for it. This situation has now changed.

It was maybe a mistake to put all the powermanagement stuff in HAL and put it 
now back into a own daemon, but as it was part of HAL it was right to put 
also backlight handling into HAL to have all powermanagment capabilities.

Danny