linuxconsole-dev

TTY discipline for Joypad

[NIIBE Y. <gn...@m1...>]

Hi there, 

I'm not sure this question is welcomed to this list.  I'm not the
member of this list yet.

I am the maintainer of SuperH port of Linux kernel.  Among targets,
there's the Dreamcast, the video game console.  Linux works quite well
on Dreamcast, however, most people doesn't have keyboard with
Dreamcast, which is a problem.

Hence, I'm thinking using Joypad (with cursor key, analog joystick,
four-buttons, two keys, and start button) to emulate keyboard.
(There's a joypad driver already.)

I think I need to implement some special TTY discipline to input a
character and to edit a line.  Is there any work done in this area?
Please let me know.

Thanks in advance, 
-- 

Re: TTY discipline for Joypad

[M. R. B. <mr...@0x...>]

* NIIBE Yutaka <gn...@m1...> on Wed, Oct 03, 2001:

> 
> I am the maintainer of SuperH port of Linux kernel.  Among targets,
> there's the Dreamcast, the video game console.  Linux works quite well
> on Dreamcast, however, most people doesn't have keyboard with
> Dreamcast, which is a problem.
> 

Keyboards and ps/2 adapters for the Dreamcast are a commodity and cheap.
What's the problem with requiring those who need keyboard access to the
Dreamcast to buy a keyboard?  I know you're going to argue that the ps/2
adapter isn't well supported, but it only takes a bit of testing to get
that correct.

> Hence, I'm thinking using Joypad (with cursor key, analog joystick,
> four-buttons, two keys, and start button) to emulate keyboard.
> (There's a joypad driver already.)
> 

What would be the use of this?  If anyone wanted to seriously login and use
their Dreamcast as a terminal, they would just go buy a keyboard, like many
have already done.  Using the joypad with it's 6 (max) magical buttons is
just plain silly.

M. R.

Re: TTY discipline for Joypad

[NIIBE Y. <gn...@m1...>]

M. R. Brown wrote:
 > Keyboards and ps/2 adapters for the Dreamcast are a commodity and cheap.
 > What's the problem with requiring those who need keyboard access to the
 > Dreamcast to buy a keyboard?  I know you're going to argue that the ps/2
 > adapter isn't well supported, but it only takes a bit of testing to get
 > that correct.

Basically, I agree with you on that point.  Those who want to run Linux
should buy keyboard.

Other way around, supporting keyboard input by Joypad is good.

Back to Japan (after meeting you), I broke the display of my notebook
computer at airport.  Since then, I do my presentation with Dreamcast
(using DFBpoint).  Some people who have Dreamcast (say, for his
children) are getting interest, they want to "try" it on their Dreamcast
with no keyboard.

 > Using the joypad with it's 6 (max) magical buttons is just plain
 > silly.

I know.  But isn't it fun to implement it?

Well, you'd say I have (many other) things to do, oh, yes.
But I need something fun, sometime.
-- 

Re: TTY discipline for Joypad

[James S. <jsi...@tr...>]

> Hi there, 
> 
> I'm not sure this question is welcomed to this list.  I'm not the
> member of this list yet.

No problem. All questions are welcomed.

> Hence, I'm thinking using Joypad (with cursor key, analog joystick,
> four-buttons, two keys, and start button) to emulate keyboard.
> (There's a joypad driver already.)

Okay. Your doing something similar to the twiddler that we have in CVS
except you are working in the opposite direction. The twijoy driver makes 
a twiddler which is a handheld keyboard act as a joytsick. Of course
emulating a keyboard is much much harder. The input layer doesn't really
do key compose. I have a dreamcast here at work and I do have a keyboard
so I'm wondering how hard is it to get a dreamcast keyboard?

> I think I need to implement some special TTY discipline to input a
> character and to edit a line.  Is there any work done in this area?
> Please let me know.

Nope. We already have a TTY discipline interface to the input layer. Take
a look at the sunkbd.c driver. It is a keyboard that can plug into a
serial port, with a special adaptor. The only problem is with serial lines
devices you need a app called inputattach to actually use the serial
device. You need to do this after insmod the driver for it.  

Hope this helps. Thanks for your interest.