Remove desktop line for Caffeine

[Chris Graham]

In my opinion it is bad UX to have a desktop link for Caffeine (i.e. include it in the app launcher).
It has no UI, so the user won't see anything happening. And the user cannot close it.

Meanwhile, you have caffeine-indicator, which does have a proper UI.

So I'd just remove /usr/share/applications/caffeine.desktop from the app and packaging.

[Reuben Thomas (rrt)]

The desktop file allows a user to launch Caffeine without using a command line, and to give a description, icon etc. for use in desktop environments' startup application lists.

[Chris Graham (chrisgraham)]

Is that a real use case though? Isn't setting Caffeine to run on login exactly the same as just disabling automatic suspend in Gnome Control Panel?

I can't see any actual reason to launch Caffeine like that given the Indicator exists, but I see it as seriously confusing for newbies to have menu options with no visible feedback to what they are doing.

[Reuben Thomas (rrt)]

That's exactly how I use Caffeine. I never use the indicator because Caffeine works ideally for me, so I have no need to switch it off. (As far as I can tell, Caffeine's behaviour is identical with that of the default behaviour of macOS. That seemed to me a good model to copy.)

Ideally, in my opinion, Caffeine would be built in to the desktop environment, and there would be a desktop configuration item to switch it off if desired. Since that is not the case, a startup service is the nearest option I can find that requires no configuration code in Caffeine itself.

I also see similar session entries inserted by the GNOME desktop itself, such as "Snap user application autostart helper" and "Smart Notifier", which offer no visual feedback.

So I agree this is not an optimal UX pattern, but it seems to be a common one, and it is the best I can think of under the circumstances. In particular, I took pains to remove all configuration code from Caffeine when I took over its maintenance, precisely because one thing user interfaces do not need is spurious indicators and especially non-standard configuration elements.

It could be argued that I should leave only Caffeine Indicator user-visible, and that such use as I make of Caffeine should be available most naturally only to advanced users (who can manually add a new desktop service) or desktop environment maintainers (who can add it to their list of default services). But I think that would get rid of a lot of users unnecessarily.

[Chris Graham (chrisgraham)]

Thanks for the writeup.

I think what you're saying is the GNOME desktop setting would be system-wide, in particular affecting the login screen - while Caffeine as a per-user startup program is targeting just for when you're logged in.
And while a per-user option would be ideal, it does not exist.

I do see your point in that case.

Perhaps in 10 years GNOME will be mature enough for the devs to put in the effort to easily set startup tasks separately to the launcher selection ;-). Until then, definitely much bigger fish to fry.

[Reuben Thomas (rrt)]

Yes, exactly! Thanks for your input.