Touch Events, Scrolling, and Windows Pen

[Danno Ferrin]

For 8.0 that would be the best solution IMHO.
On May 28, 2013 8:41 AM, "Pavel Safrata" <pavel.safrata at oracle.com> wrote:

> So it seems to me that in short term (FX8) the pen should produce mouse
> events with isSynthesized==false. We can introduce something more advanced
> in the future, but right now it should generally work and the synthesized
> flag really seems to be misused here.
> Pavel
>
> On 28.5.2013 16:09, Danno Ferrin wrote:
>
>> On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 2:44 AM, Anthony Petrov
>> <anthony.petrov at oracle.com>**wrote:
>>
>>  Hi Danno,
>>>
>>>
>>> On 05/27/2013 07:27 PM, Danno Ferrin wrote:
>>>
>>>  My next problem is the pen device on Windows.  The only events captured
>>>> in
>>>> JavaFX from a pen are mouse events.  To complicate things the
>>>> "Synthesized"
>>>> flag is set.  This is a bit disconcerting because to the view of a JFX
>>>> app
>>>> there is no other event for it to be synthesized to.  So I would propose
>>>> the isPenEvent method in /glass/glass-lib-windows/src/***
>>>> *ViewContainer.cpp
>>>> be
>>>> added to check that the 0x80 bit is set by changing the signature
>>>> to 0xFF515780 and the mask to 0xFFFFFF80, making a pen event look just
>>>> like
>>>> a mouse event, since it only generates mouse events. (the linked MSDN
>>>> article in the code explains the lower 8 bits, and the high bit is a
>>>> pen/touch flag, the logic may need to be more complex).  To distinguish
>>>> a
>>>> pen tap perhaps we set the direct flag but not the synthesized flag,
>>>> since
>>>> a pen is direct on the screen (usually).
>>>>
>>>> So am I way off base on these?  Should I work up a patch for these?  Or
>>>> must the current behavior be maintained.
>>>>
>>>>  AFAIK, we haven't tested Glass/FX with a Pen device and I doubt we even
>>> have proper hardware to test it at the moment. So such a patch would
>>> certainly be welcome. Please feel free to post it on this mailing list
>>> for
>>> a review.
>>>
>>>  I think the QA and dev team should invest a few thousand and buy one or
>> two
>> each of a Surface Pro, a Samsung Ativ 500T, and maybe an Asus VivoTab (but
>> only the Asus if you can get the pen with it on the same order).  The
>> "triple threat" input devices (mouse/pen/touch) will cover a lot of bases.
>>
>>
>>  However, we should first decide how we want to process Pen events. They
>>> are not regular mouse events, nor are they similar to regular touch
>>> events
>>> (though they have a lot in common with the latter). E.g. suppose you can
>>> control your Surface Pro with a finger using its touch screen. These are
>>> touch events. Now, you could also connect a USB mouse to this device, and
>>> that would have to generate regular mouse events. Additionally, you could
>>> connect a graphic tablet such as a Wacom Bamboo for example, and this
>>> device would have to generate some special Pen events, right?
>>>
>>>  As far as I can tell pen evens are just the same as mouse events unless
>> you
>> use microsofts "Ink" APIs to insert "Ink" into your application.  So
>> unless
>> JavaFX adds support for digital ink, there is vey little difference. The
>> only one that comes to mind is pressure sensitivity, and the minority of
>> windows pen screens or pads support pressure sensitivity.
>>
>>
>>
>>  Should we introduce a new kind of events for Pen events in FX? Or does it
>>> make sense to use touch events for this purpose? How would we distinguish
>>> between finger- and pen- based input events in the above scenario then?
>>>
>>>  Behavior is a big difference in pen vs touch.  Tap and drag for touch
>> gets interpreted as a scroll pan, while tap and drag for a pen
>> gets interpreted as a mouse click and drag, for example selecting text.
>>
>> Pen events don't generate touch gestures like the touch screens do.
>>  Unless
>> you count the "flicks" api in microsoft land which just generates events
>> at
>> the windows level for stuff like delete, cut, copy, paste, etc.  Much like
>> the multimedia keyboard.
>>
>> A new boolean field could be added isPen could be added on the mouseEvent,
>> or a new enum property at InputEvent called Input Device, that would
>> enumerate if it was mouse, touch, pen, keyboard, or whatever standard
>> input
>> devies show up in the future.  These enums could then be loaded with all
>> sorts of interesting queries in case a user wants to write their app in a
>> future proof way, such as are drag events principally pan-scrolling, is
>> the
>> gesture device direct/indirect.  Maybe not an enum, but a separate HCI
>> object rather than pushing the random flags into the event system.
>>
>>
>>  What other options do we have?
>>>
>>>
>>>  Keeping pen input second class is fine I think, as long as it is
>> consistent
>> with the differences between touch and mouse in non-ink areas.  If we have
>> to confuse them with one type or the other, confuse them with mouse events
>> because they are closer to mouse events then touch events. There are more
>> important areas for JavaFX to go to before it goes down the digital ink
>> path.
>>
>>
>>  --
>>> best regards,
>>> Anthony
>>>
>>>
>