Comments on: The Trouble With Tablets http://popey.com/blog/2009/11/27/the-trouble-with-tablets/ DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM!! Tue, 22 May 2012 14:58:37 +0100 hourly 1 By: Michael http://popey.com/blog/2009/11/27/the-trouble-with-tablets/comment-page-1/#comment-7108 Michael Sat, 10 Mar 2012 22:46:00 +0000 http://popey.com/blog/?p=414#comment-7108 I also have one of those m400 machines, and installed UltimateEdition Linux (that's Ubuntu-based) on it. I ended up having 3 buttons in my top bar, one to rotate left, one to rotate right, amd one to flip. They start scripts that check screen orientation and set xrandr and xsetwacom accordingly. I also added a script to the rotation button that switches from invertd screen to portrait, or between landscape and portrait, depending. I tried xev, as one poster suggested, but the screen doesn't seem to generate any events when rotating, ACPI or otherwise, which will make developing a tool extremely difficult. I got the directional stick working correctly, though, and the SD cardreader works, as do the FN buttons, display brighness and stuff. With florence as OSK I'm set so far, everything just peachy. Performance-wise: I had XP and Win7 on it and wasn't happy with both of them. Scolling speed in Firefox, video tearing, other stuff. In UltimateEdition Linux, it's smooth as a baby. If anyone needs tips with it, feel free to holler, I'll check back. I also have one of those m400 machines, and installed UltimateEdition Linux (that’s Ubuntu-based) on it.
I ended up having 3 buttons in my top bar, one to rotate left, one to rotate right, amd one to flip. They start scripts that check screen orientation and set xrandr and xsetwacom accordingly. I also added a script to the rotation button that switches from invertd screen to portrait, or between landscape and portrait, depending.
I tried xev, as one poster suggested, but the screen doesn’t seem to generate any events when rotating, ACPI or otherwise, which will make developing a tool extremely difficult.
I got the directional stick working correctly, though, and the SD cardreader works, as do the FN buttons, display brighness and stuff.
With florence as OSK I’m set so far, everything just peachy.
Performance-wise: I had XP and Win7 on it and wasn’t happy with both of them. Scolling speed in Firefox, video tearing, other stuff. In UltimateEdition Linux, it’s smooth as a baby.
If anyone needs tips with it, feel free to holler, I’ll check back.

]]> By: Florian Hackenberger http://popey.com/blog/2009/11/27/the-trouble-with-tablets/comment-page-1/#comment-1554 Florian Hackenberger Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:02:30 +0000 http://popey.com/blog/?p=414#comment-1554 If you consider filing a bug, please have a look at <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi-support/+bug/159026" rel="nofollow">Bug #159026</a>. If you consider filing a bug, please have a look at Bug #159026.

]]> By: Kevin http://popey.com/blog/2009/11/27/the-trouble-with-tablets/comment-page-1/#comment-1548 Kevin Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:52:37 +0000 http://popey.com/blog/?p=414#comment-1548 Don't forget us lefties. We can't scroll down on tablets without covering the page contents with our hands. It's terrible. Widnows decided not to fix this in Vista (don't know about Win7) because it would break too many apps that hard code layouts and dimensions to have a 'move scrollbars to the left side' option. I say, break 'em. This is one area of usability where gnome could shine. Don’t forget us lefties. We can’t scroll down on tablets without covering the page contents with our hands. It’s terrible. Widnows decided not to fix this in Vista (don’t know about Win7) because it would break too many apps that hard code layouts and dimensions to have a ‘move scrollbars to the left side’ option. I say, break ‘em. This is one area of usability where gnome could shine.

]]> By: Luis Davim http://popey.com/blog/2009/11/27/the-trouble-with-tablets/comment-page-1/#comment-1547 Luis Davim Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:04:28 +0000 http://popey.com/blog/?p=414#comment-1547 This sounds like a job for the 100 paper cuts team :) This sounds like a job for the 100 paper cuts team :)

]]> By: Alberto Milone http://popey.com/blog/2009/11/27/the-trouble-with-tablets/comment-page-1/#comment-1546 Alberto Milone Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:41:01 +0000 http://popey.com/blog/?p=414#comment-1546 A few months ago I wrote a daemon which allows configuration of input devices with Xinput through DBus (i.e. from any language that have DBus bindings). The Wacom driver in Lucid will support Xinput properties (as, for example, touchpads do). This means that I could implement a simple feature in my daemon which makes the daemon look for (RandR) screen rotation events and rotate the tablet accordingly (as tablet's rotation will be an Xinput property). This of course would be an option in a simple UI written in, say, Python (or you could simply modify the xml configuration file of the daemon). I hope to have the time to do this :-/ A few months ago I wrote a daemon which allows configuration of input devices with Xinput through DBus (i.e. from any language that have DBus bindings).

The Wacom driver in Lucid will support Xinput properties (as, for example, touchpads do). This means that I could implement a simple feature in my daemon which makes the daemon look for (RandR) screen rotation events and rotate the tablet accordingly (as tablet’s rotation will be an Xinput property). This of course would be an option in a simple UI written in, say, Python (or you could simply modify the xml configuration file of the daemon).

I hope to have the time to do this :-/

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