[PATCH RFC] Add a FOCUS_FORCE flag to the device's focus class

[Jennifer Elaan]

It's been a while since I've looked at this code, so I might not be
following entirely, but if I'm reading it correctly, it would appear that
it sets the event type in such a way that the event will not be interpreted
as a pointer motion?

If so, this is exactly what will be required to add SpaceNavigator support
directly as an XInput driver, rather than using a special management
daemon.  The use case that needs support is if two 3D applications are open
at once, whichever one has keyboard focus should receive extension valuator
events, rather than pointer events, from the SN.  Generally this is used to
manipulate the 3D camera inside the application, not the pointer.

Right now, SecondLife opens the device directly as a joystick, and Blender
requires the use of a special daemon.  Making them share nicely is
effectively impossible right now.  There may be other applications of this
device that I am not aware of, but these two alone demonstrate the current
problem.

There are other similar input devices still on the market, like jog wheels,
etc, which also are intended to send numerical valuator inputs which are
not pointer movement events.

On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 11:27 PM, Peter Hutterer
<peter.hutterer at who-t.net>wrote:

> Some devices should not use a traditional pointer-focusing model but
> instead
> should be controlled by the client at all times. One example are tablets
> that are bound through the GDK map to window option. Once focused, the
> tablet events should always go to the focus window.
>
> Currently, devices only send pointer events to the window at the sprite
> location. This behaviour was introduced in a88386ee277d136caaae
> and breaks how XI 1.x devices used to be handled.
>
> A device that uses forced focus will always either deliver to the focus
> window, or to the sprite window if the focus is PointerRoot. If the device
> is a floating slave device, the VCP determines the sprite window.
> Forced focus devices are listed as IsXExtensionDevice, this best emulates
> the original behaviour for XI 1.x clients that need it.
>
> A device can be enabled as such a device through the ForceFocus option in
> the config file or snippet. This is a permanent option and cannot be
> changed
> at runtime.
>
> Signed-off-by: Peter Hutterer <peter.hutterer at who-t.net>
>
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