Re: [DIGImend-users] hello

[Nikolai K. <sp...@gm...>]

Hi Dumitru,

I'm copying this reply to the DIGImend maillist at
dig...@li... to have this conversation published so
others could benefit from it. Please use "Reply to all" instead of "Reply"
to keep it published.

On 04/09/2012 04:55 PM, Dima Ursu wrote:
> hello, I've read the interview on www.libregraphicsworld.org about digital tablets.

Great! Then the interview was worth it :)

> I own an Genius g-pen F509, and I can tell you for sure that it works with xf86-input-wacom,
> but the thing is that buttons from stylus aren't recognized properly. but using xf86-input-wizardpen, it works well enough.

This is interesting. However, xf86-input-wizardpen was discontinued (not for
the first time, though).

As you probably now, I made a kernel driver for this tablet, which should be
included into 3.4 kernel relase. I expect your tablet pen buttons to work
correctly with my kernel driver and xf86-input-wacom.

I plan to build and distribute kernel packages for major distributions with
tablet support added soon. Please subscribe or just visit the project blog
at http://sourceforge.net/apps/wordpress/digimend/ from time to time to see
when they're ready. Which distribution do you use?

> what doesn't work at all is those shortcut squares on the sides and the upper part, which makes a great part of the tablet
> just a piece of useless plastic.
>
> I know C language ( although I don't have much experience, I'm just a student ), and I would like to help
> by making those shortcuts work, and the pen buttons work properly. Can you provide me some guidance throughout all this?

Although it may be an interesting task, I wouldn't recommend implementing
support for these "virtual" buttons. The problem is that they're not really
useful much. When you use your tablet, you look at the screen most of the
time, but to hit these buttons you have to look at the tablet, because it is
hard to locate them by feel. As a result you loose concentration, which is
not good for productivity.

That's why I never implemented support for them for any tablet.

As I said above, my kernel driver makes pen buttons work. At least to the
extent possible with Waltop tablets - they're not very well implemented.

If you want some good tablet-related programming practice, try your hand
with xf86-input-evdev - it is still missing several tablet-related features.
However, before taking on a significant task, contact Peter Hutterer
<pet...@wh...> and ask if he would accept the change and the
design.

Sincerely,
Nick