Bug#786944: gnome-shell: Remaining battery display confusing and hard to read

[Y. Greenwald]

Package: gnome-shell
Version: 3.14.2-3+b1
Severity: minor

Dear Maintainer,

When looking to see the battery remaining for my laptop, there is an icon on the right of the top bar, which gives an approximation of the battery percentage remaining through bars which fill up the battery to a certain amount.


To get a sense of approximately how much battery remains, I look at the icon, see how much the battery is filled, and estimate based on that. When it is nearly empty, the battery is empty, and when it is full, the battery is full. There are four indicator bars -- the bottom three which are as wide as the full width of the battery, the top one being restricted to the "nub" on top. When determining how many indicator bars to show, the top bar is counted, so each bar is indicates roughly 1/4 battery life, with some adjustment. However, when actually reading the indicator, the topmost indicator bar, not being full width nor full height, and crammed into the outline of the "nub", is missed, so the three remaining indicator bars are taken as 1/3 battery life, leading to the interpretation of the 1/2-1/4 battery life remaining range as 2/3-1/3, which makes the battery run low sooner than expected.

The topmost indicator bar in the battery should be enlarged, or the shape changed in some way, to make it more visible -- or it should be dicarded, and the "nub" at the to should simply not be filled or unfilled as part of the representation of battery life.

Thanks,
Reporter

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.0
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages gnome-shell depends on:
ii  dconf-gsettings-backend [gsettings-back  0.22.0-1
ii  evolution-data-server                    3.12.9~git20141128.5242b0-2+deb8u2
ii  gir1.2-accountsservice-1.0               0.6.37-3+b1
ii  gir1.2-atspi-2.0                         2.14.0-1
ii  gir1.2-caribou-1.0                       0.4.15-1
ii  gir1.2-clutter-1.0                       1.20.0-1
ii  gir1.2-freedesktop                       1.42.0-2.2
ii  gir1.2-gcr-3                             3.14.0-2
ii  gir1.2-gdesktopenums-3.0                 3.14.1-1
ii  gir1.2-gdm3                              3.14.1-7
ii  gir1.2-gkbd-3.0                          3.6.0-1
ii  gir1.2-glib-2.0                          1.42.0-2.2
ii  gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-1.0                3.14.0-2
ii  gir1.2-gnomedesktop-3.0                  3.14.1-1
ii  gir1.2-gtk-3.0                           3.14.5-1
ii  gir1.2-ibus-1.0                          1.5.9-1
ii  gir1.2-mutter-3.0                        3.14.2-1
ii  gir1.2-networkmanager-1.0                0.9.10.0-7
ii  gir1.2-nmgtk-1.0                         0.9.10.0-2
ii  gir1.2-pango-1.0                         1.36.8-3
ii  gir1.2-polkit-1.0                        0.105-8
ii  gir1.2-soup-2.4                          2.48.0-1
ii  gir1.2-telepathyglib-0.12                0.24.1-1
ii  gir1.2-telepathylogger-0.2               0.8.1-1
ii  gir1.2-upowerglib-1.0                    0.99.1-3.2
ii  gjs                                      1.42.0-1
ii  gnome-backgrounds                        3.14.1-1
ii  gnome-icon-theme-symbolic                3.12.0-1
ii  gnome-settings-daemon                    3.14.2-3
ii  gnome-shell-common                       3.14.2-3
ii  gnome-themes-standard                    3.14.2.2-1
ii  gsettings-desktop-schemas                3.14.1-1
ii  libatk-bridge2.0-0                       2.14.0-2
ii  libatk1.0-0                              2.14.0-1
ii  libc6                                    2.19-18
ii  libcairo2                                1.14.0-2.1
ii  libcanberra-gtk3-0                       0.30-2.1
ii  libcanberra0                             0.30-2.1
ii  libclutter-1.0-0                         1.20.0-1
ii  libcogl-pango20                          1.18.2-3
ii  libcogl20                                1.18.2-3
ii  libcroco3                                0.6.8-3+b1
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2                         0.102-1
ii  libecal-1.2-16                           3.12.9~git20141128.5242b0-2+deb8u2
ii  libedataserver-1.2-18                    3.12.9~git20141128.5242b0-2+deb8u2
ii  libgcr-base-3-1                          3.14.0-2
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0                       2.31.1-2+b1
ii  libgirepository-1.0-1                    1.42.0-2.2
ii  libgjs0e [libgjs0-libmozjs-24-0]         1.42.0-1
ii  libglib2.0-0                             2.42.1-1
ii  libgstreamer1.0-0                        1.4.4-2
ii  libgtk-3-0                               3.14.5-1
ii  libical1a                                1.0-1.3
ii  libjson-glib-1.0-0                       1.0.2-1
ii  libmozjs-24-0                            24.2.0-2
ii  libmutter0e                              3.14.2-1
ii  libnm-glib4                              0.9.10.0-7
ii  libnm-util2                              0.9.10.0-7
ii  libpango-1.0-0                           1.36.8-3
ii  libpangocairo-1.0-0                      1.36.8-3
ii  libpolkit-agent-1-0                      0.105-8
ii  libpolkit-gobject-1-0                    0.105-8
ii  libpulse-mainloop-glib0                  5.0-13
ii  libpulse0                                5.0-13
ii  libsecret-1-0                            0.18-1+b1
ii  libstartup-notification0                 0.12-4
ii  libsystemd0                              215-17
ii  libtelepathy-glib0                       0.24.1-1
ii  libx11-6                                 2:1.6.2-3
ii  libxfixes3                               1:5.0.1-2+b2
ii  mutter                                   3.14.2-1
ii  python                                   2.7.9-1
ii  telepathy-mission-control-5              1:5.16.3-1

Versions of packages gnome-shell recommends:
ii  gdm3                  3.14.1-7
ii  gkbd-capplet          3.6.0-1
ii  gnome-contacts        3.14.1-1
ii  gnome-control-center  1:3.14.2-3
ii  gnome-user-guide      3.14.1-1
ii  unzip                 6.0-16

gnome-shell suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information