[PATCH] [synaptic] swipe actions based on the tree-fingers touch

[Gabriele Mazzotta]

On Friday 05 September 2014 14:10:30 Peter Hutterer wrote:
> Hi Arkadiusz,
> 
> sorry about the delay on the review here.
> 
> On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 07:31:44PM +0200, Arkadiusz Bokowy wrote:
> > When touchpad can report more then 2 active fingers, we can generate action
> > based on swipe gesture. It includes upward, downward, to the left and to the
> > right swipes. To all of those gestures can be assigned one button event. By
> > default (internal driver default) swipes are disabled (assigned button 0).
> > The swipe length (hand displacement) required for triggering button event can
> > be set independently for horizontal and vertical movement. There is also
> > possibility for triggering repeatable events during swipe handling, however
> > it is disabled by default.
> > 
> > The most preferable button assignment is button 8, 9, 10 and 11 for to the
> > left, to the right, upward and downward swipes respectively. Such a
> > configuration provides browser history navigation (e.g. Firefox) with
> > horizontal swipes. Button 10 and 11 are not used, though.
> > 
> > Added Synaptic driver options:
> > * SwipeUpButton, SwipeDownButton, SwipeLeftButton, SwipeRightButton
> > * HorizSwipeThreshold, VertSwipeThreshold
> > * SingleSwipe
> > 
> > This changes was developed on Samsung NP530U3C with the ETPS/2 Elantech
> > Touchpad, which can report up to three-finger touch. Also tested on the
> > SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad. Patch is generated for the driver version 1.7.4.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Arkadiusz Bokowy <arkadiusz.bokowy at gmail.com>
> > ---
> >  include/synaptics-properties.h | 10 +++++
> >  man/synaptics.man              | 28 ++++++++++++
> >  src/properties.c               | 44 +++++++++++++++++++
> >  src/synaptics.c                | 99 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
> >  src/synapticsstr.h             | 21 +++++++++
> >  tools/synclient.c              |  7 +++
> >  6 files changed, 207 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/include/synaptics-properties.h b/include/synaptics-properties.h
> > index 19bd2b2..e74ffd0 100644
> > --- a/include/synaptics-properties.h
> > +++ b/include/synaptics-properties.h
> > @@ -104,6 +104,16 @@
> >   * element. order: Finger 1, 2, 3 */
> >  #define SYNAPTICS_PROP_CLICK_ACTION "Synaptics Click Action"
> >  
> > +/* 8 bit, up to MAX_SWIPE values (see synaptics.h), 0 disables an
> > + * element. order: Up, Down, Left, Right */
> > +#define SYNAPTICS_PROP_SWIPE_ACTION "Synaptics Swipe Action"
> 
> no references to header files please. Just say there are 4 values in it.
> 
> > +
> > +/* 8 bit, 2 values, vertical, horizontal */
> > +#define SYNAPTICS_PROP_SWIPE_THRESHOLD "Synaptics Swipe Threshold"
> > +
> > +/* 8 bit (BOOL) */
> > +#define SYNAPTICS_PROP_SINGLE_SWIPE "Synaptics Single Swipe"
> 
> I don't think we need this one. I'm ok with adding support for three-finger
> swipe but if we only map them to buttons anyway, a single button per gesture
> is enough. The only time where multiple buttons are useful is for scroll
> buttons and that's where we already have two-finger scrolling for.
> 
> that brings up the next question: should we even support vertical scroll. in
> X, due to a number of limitations the only buttons that make sense to map to
> are 8/9 for back/forward. Some specialised apps may be able to use 10/11
> etc. but I'd rather have a small limited feature that has predictable
> outcomes.
> 
> so I'm in favour of dropping the single swipe toggle, up/down and, quite
> frankly, four finger swiping. Unless gabriele comes up with a really good
> use-case, just exposing what the hw can do isn't enough tbh.

I'm using this patch and xbindkeys to perform specific actions. The reasons
why I added four finger gestures were that first of all, the code was there
already, I just did few changes, and second, I wanted to be able to perform
more than two actions.
For example, I wanted to be able to navigate in the browser history and at
the same time control my music player running in background without
conflicts.

Using the gestures to perform actions through programs like xbindkeys is 
the only use-case in which having all these gestures could be useful.
If you use the buttons sent for what they are, I agree with you, horizontal
three-finger swipes should be enough.

PS: the patch I sent had a small mistake:

diff --git a/src/properties.c b/src/properties.c
index ac2d8f0..dedb05d 100644
--- a/src/properties.c
+++ b/src/properties.c
@@ -712,7 +712,7 @@ SetProperty(DeviceIntPtr dev, Atom property, XIPropertyValuePtr prop,
         int i;
         CARD8 *action;
 
-        if (prop->size > MAX_SWIPE || prop->format != 8 ||
+        if (prop->size > 2 * MAX_SWIPE || prop->format != 8 ||
             prop->type != XA_INTEGER)
             return BadMatch;
 

Regards,
Gabriele