[chuck-users] Gyration Air Mouse

[Les Hall]

On May 27, 2011, at 8:06 AM, Kassen wrote:

> Hey Les,
> I think there are two potential long-term solutions. 
> 
> * Extend mouse support for a arbitrary number of axis. If the library that we use has that feature this should be fairly straightforward.
> * Create a generalised "raw" hid abstraction that can be polled for its number of buttons, axis, wheels, etc. This wouldn't have a "type" as such so that would immediately support all sorts of exotic stuff (magic carpet controllers, etc).
> 
> Yours,
> Kas.

Kas, always great to hear from you!  A generalized hid abstraction makes good sense for all the right reasons IMHO.  I don't know what it would require, but I will say this.  Spencer and the rest of the ChucK dev team must be very busy, as we all usually are, so what I have learned in these situations is that if we make it easy for them, they will be much more likely to accept our request.  What that means is doing whatever is required such as defining the problem, identifying the file names and code line numbers to change, or other such up-front work that will help them.  

Personally, I love using languages like ChucK for my own small programs, but I am at a loss when it comes to compiling source code or setting up dependencies and such.  Therefore I cannot really get into the nuts and bolts of this like I probably should or would like.  I can, however help with defining the interface or thinking through some features.  Kas, can we discuss some details in email and then present them to this list?  I'd like to consider features related to hid such as auto-zeroing, anti-zipper, obtaining position and velocity from acceleration, and even possibilities like tracking, etc. that could be easily coded into such an interface.  

Best wishes, 
Les