Comment by jnty
7 years ago
Have we not been optimising for power usage for the last ten years at least? It's really important for tablets, phones and laptops.
7 years ago
Have we not been optimising for power usage for the last ten years at least? It's really important for tablets, phones and laptops.
No not really, websites have been using more and more video, images, JavaScript.
I'm sure the average website of 10/20 years ago uses less resources, and by extension power than the current average website.
I suppose you could argue we do more with each unit of power, I would contend most of that has been wasted on non core frivolities that aren't worth the cost though.
Devices have all made great advances in improving battery life, both by advancing battery technology and by having on the fly adjustments of things like screen brightness.
Content providers however haven't really done much. Do you think app and web developers give much thought to battery life when they make their products? If they ever optimize it's for reasons such as responsiveness (which drives customers away if it's poor), and battery life is at best a sideeffect.
The hardware side of things, yes. The software side of things (outside the OS), not so much.
I would argue that's way outside the scope of software development.
First, you can't really know how various things are implemented in hardware. Something that saves power on one machine will increase power usage on another. This would be a big step backwards in terms of abstraction.
Second, and more important IMO, is that it's just not our job. Hardware people should make efficient hardware, and software people should make efficient software. The meaning of efficient depends on the context.
I think in context here, it’s about not making software that does more work than necessary. Aka efficient software.
Much software doesn’t need to be efficient in design, just efficient in terms of developer time. But if power consumption is a consideration, making the software itself more efficient in its design (if not implementation details) becomes more of a requirement.
And, finally, there’s always people writing embedded/firmware. The line between software and hardware is blurry.
I feel like that disconnect in the middle is why I can't leave a supposedly idle website open (even minimized) on my laptop while on battery power if I want it to last. Mobile seems to be headed in the right direction though.