Re: GSoC <Generic input device layer> project community intro and sync


On Apr 17, 2007, at 10:21 AM, thIOretic wrote:

I would like to get info from everyone, who may take similar efforts in FreeBSD input handling. I'm aware of
* newpsm framework
* KGI/KII
* vtc(4) was mentioned, but its code seems to do nothing from my project thesis perspective. Or I've missed something?

As for vtc(4): I've not been working on input devices because of the
lack of a generic layer. Note that vtc(4) deals with the low-level
console as much as it deals with user-visible terminals, so from that
point of view, a user space stack will not address the need for having
console input when there's no (functional) user space -- this includes
early boot, the kernel debugger and single-user mode. I therefore doubt
that it will sufficiently (or at all) solve problems we already have.

Also, while multiplexing is an important feature I think that de-
multiplexing is important too. With USB and multi-head or multiple
graphics cards it's conceptually easy to turn a PC into a multi-
user workstation, having multiple independent terminals. This implies
that input devices need to be tied to output devices, which together
form one or more terminals.

In short: We do need a generic input framework, but I think we need
it in the kernel, not in user space. I also think that a generic
input layer should be capable of handling both focussed and non-
focussed input devices to lay the foundation for configurations
that do not include keyboards.

--
Marcel Moolenaar
xcllnt@xxxxxxx


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