Touchscreen on Linux with Mouse.moveTo()

[PaulStoffregen]

It's probably time to close this ancient thread. It's all a very old & moot point by now.

For years Teensy's USB mouse has offered both relative and absolute modes by using 2 different HID reports. All this talk of which mode is better is a moot point. We've had both modes for a very long time. The days where Mouse.move() awkwardly used absolute mode are long behind us.

With modern versions of Teensyduino, when you call Mouse.move(), Teensy really is communicating relative coordinates to your PC or Mac (or Linux SBC or whatever type of USB host you're using).

We also now have 10 finger USB touchscreen, in addition to USB mouse which offers both move() for relative coordinates and moveTo() for absolute. Everything anyone ever wanted years ago on this thread has been in Teensyduino for quite some time.

I'll probably close this thread soon...

 

[bmuessig]

It's probably time to close this ancient thread. It's all a very old & moot point by now.

For years Teensy's USB mouse has offered both relative and absolute modes by using 2 different HID reports. All this talk of which mode is better is a moot point. We've had both modes for a very long time. The days where Mouse.move() awkwardly used absolute mode are long behind us.

With modern versions of Teensyduino, when you call Mouse.move(), Teensy really is communicating relative coordinates to your PC or Mac (or Linux SBC or whatever type of USB host you're using).

We also now have 10 finger USB touchscreen, in addition to USB mouse which offers both move() for relative coordinates and moveTo() for absolute. Everything anyone ever wanted years ago on this thread has been in Teensyduino for quite some time.

I'll probably close this thread soon...

That's great to hear. You might want to update the wiki on https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_mouse.html which still refers to this thread.

 

[PaulStoffregen]

Ah yes, there is the problem of Linux (actually X11) not supporting both modes. Windows and Macintosh do. Maybe Linux does now too? I haven't tested in years, since it's been such a long time since anyone's mentioned the Linux problem.

 

[Elmue]

bmuessig wrote:
> I'd actually go as far as saying, relative positioning with Mouse.move() is usually much more useful than absolute positioning for most applications.

This is wrong.
I tested absolute and relative positioning.

Relative positioning requires you to know firest where the cursor currently is.
This is generally impossible to know.

The final position depends additionally on the mouse speed that the user has configured which you cannot know, neither.

Another problem is that many operating systems do a "mouse pointer optimization" which screws up eveything.
This optimization moves the mouse dependent on the moving speed.
If this "optimization" is enabled it becomes completekly impossible to know where the mouse will end up.

So finally with relative movement you get blind clicking.
It is just guessing where the click will end.

 

[bmuessig]

This is wrong.
I tested absolute and relative positioning.

Relative positioning requires you to know firest where the cursor currently is.
This is generally impossible to know.

The final position depends additionally on the mouse speed that the user has configured which you cannot know, neither.

Another problem is that many operating systems do a "mouse pointer optimization" which screws up eveything.
This optimization moves the mouse dependent on the moving speed.
If this "optimization" is enabled it becomes completekly impossible to know where the mouse will end up.

So finally with relative movement you get blind clicking.
It is just guessing where the click will end.

I am sticking with my statement. Unless you want to built yet another hacking device, there is no point in knowing absolute coordinates.
If you are building an input device to a computer, you usually want relative input and you can observe with your eyes, what the mouse is doing on screen; you are the feedback loop.
There is seldom any use for absolute input, except for building touchscreens. For regular software automation, there already are far better tools for Windows, Linux and Mac.
And the absolute input on the Teensy might only work on Windows or Mac (but only on one, as the input algorithm differs across the two platforms).
Absolute input wouldn't even be useful for automating most embedded devices, because they're Linux based and there is still no confirmed solution to this day.