multi-touch-dev team mailing list archive

["Henrik Rydberg" <rydberg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Chase,

> The past few weeks have been challenging for xi 2.1 development on
> Ubuntu. The new xserver 1.10 has been pushed to natty and, though this
> really helps us overall, the transition has impacted installability of
> packages from the xorg-unstable ppa.

I suspect this is actually the most unstable ubuntu cycle in a while,
given the amount of exciting work that is currently taking
place. Kudos for making it work so well in such a fluid environment.

> I come bearing good news! I have remade all the packages in the ppa as
> patched versions of the natty X packages. This means we are close to
> pushing things into Ubuntu proper! I would encourage everyone who is
> interested to give the packages some testing. Here's an overview of how
> to install the ppa:
> 
> $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:utouch-team/xorg-unstable
> 
> Create and/or edit /etc/apt/preferences.d/utouch-team-xorg-unstable to
> include:
> 
> Package: *
> Pin: release o=LP-PPA-utouch-team-xorg-unstable
> Pin-Priority: 1001

It seems this is not even necessary anymore?

> $ sudo apt-get update
> $ sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-core

And also install xserver-xorg-dev in case you need to recompile server
drivers.

> Hopefully this will bring in all the new packages for you. Don't be
> alarmed if some of the packages are version downgraded during this process.
> 
> If you have been following the ppa work so far, note that the
> Pin-Priority has been increased from 991 to 1001. Also, you should
> remove the xorg-edgers ppa at this time. I suggest using ppa-purge to do so.
> 
> Since the last release of packages, I have also merged in gesture
> support from our uTouch stack. You can now register for gestures through
> uTouch and multitouch through XI 2.1. You can even register for gestures
> and multitouch on the same window! I also fixed a small bug that could
> cause the server to crash when using a multitouch trackpad.

Very nice indeed.

> At this time I would like to receive any issues or bug reports on this
> mailing list. We will transition to launchpad for bug reports once the
> work is in Ubuntu proper, but due to things still being in flux I think
> reports are better here for now.

There is an important difference in the handling of prolonged gestures
in this environment, which seems to imply that not all basic
application gesture needs can be met with this approach.

With the maverick X drivers (synaptics and multitouch), it is natural
to position the cursor with one finger, and then add another finger to
scroll a bit, life one finger to position the cursor again, and so
on. The same goes for zooming, where one first positions the cursor,
then zooms at that point.

With the new natty XI2.1 packages, the gesture engine releases control
over a touch based on a timeout, passing it on to the application in
such a way that the modus operandi described above no longer is
possible. In practise, one might need to view the server-side
recognition as dedicated to system gestures, and instead reimplement
the current application behavior on the client side.

Henrik