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From: dale@dandelion.ci.com (Dale Gallaher)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Using tablets in X (Was: Re: Moving pointer in software ?)
Message-ID: <1167@dandelion.CI.COM>
Date: 21 Mar 91 15:00:00 GMT
References: <9103131557.AA10051@devnull.Eng.Sun.COM> <1165@dandelion.CI.COM> <1991Mar18.170530.13580@dsd.es.com> <1276@attc.UUCP>
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In article <1276@attc.UUCP>, marbru@attc.UUCP (Martin Brunecky) writes:
|> In article <1991Mar18.170530.13580@dsd.es.com> rthomson@dsd.es.com (Rich Thomson) writes:
|> >The X input extension allows input from a wide variety of devices.
|> >However, the support for the input extension must be built into the
|> >server (including driving the devices).  It is not plug-and-play in
|> >that respect.
|> >
|> 
|>    We have taken a slightly different approach. Since we want to treate
|>    the digitizer suface similarly to the screen, i.e. lay windows on the
|>    top of it, get enter/leave/button/motion events etc., we decided
|>    to strip-down (lobotomize) the MIT X Server.
|> 

Since both of these aproaches involve specialized servers they are not really helpful
for us.  We have users of our CAD package that used to use it in sunview and we included
support for a tablet.  Now most of the users are converting to OpenWindows, but we have
not included and support for the tablet.

The reason I brought this up with moving the pointer was I thought maybe it could be
done by just listening to the tablet and warping the pointer to follow.  The pointer
would also follow the mouse if the mouse position changed.  Essentially it would
follow which ever was moved last.  If the pointer left our application then we would
ignore the anything from the tablet until the pointer came back to our application.

Does this sound reasonable or too much of a hack to be practical?  Otherwise, it seems
our tablet uses our stuck with Sunview, and I am not sure how much longer Sunview will
be around.
-- 

Dale Gallaher					Cognition Corp.
dale@dandelion.ci.com				
(508)667-7900 x121				Billerica, MA