[Xorg] XINPUT additions; maybe add an XDEVICE extension?

[Egbert Eich]

Joe Krahn writes:
 > A lot of XINPUT commands are written as if they were made as
 > interfaces to X extensions in general. For example, XINPUT
 > defines XSelectExtensionEvent(), which is (I think) the only
 > standard interface to non-hardwired extension event types.
 > Also, many input devices are really output devices as well,
 > even in XINPUT which defines output as Feedback events.

Worse even though they pretend to be more general they are really
XInput specific. It looks to me as if someone tried to add more
generic interfaces but for a lack of space to put them they were
stuck into XInput.
These things really should go into XFixes instead.

 > 
 > IMHO, XINPUT should really be XDEVICE. But, XINPUT is
 > already well established. So, perhaps a development plan
 > could be to add a new extension called XDEVICE that
 > does all of the device managament and configuration, and
 > could be designed not just for input devices, but for any
 > device.

In this case the client needs to be able to figure out which
XDEVICE device matches which XINPUT device. This seems to be
trivial however it isn't as XINPUT devices are much more generic
than XDEVICE devices will be.

 > 
 > Regardless, XINPUT itself still needs some updating.
 > 

Definitely.

Egbert.