Re: [PATCH 2/2] input: mt: Document the MT event slot protocol (rev2)

[Dmitry Torokhov]

On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 10:13:24AM +1000, Peter Hutterer wrote:
> On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 02:12:14PM +0200, Henrik Rydberg wrote:
> > Peter Hutterer wrote:
> > > On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 10:10:29PM +0200, Henrik Rydberg wrote:
> > >> This patch adds documentation for the SYN_MT_SLOT event and gives
> > >> examples of how to use the event slot protocol.
> > > 
> > > thanks, this is really nice documentation! the approach seems good, though I
> > > do have a few questions inline.
> > > 
> > [...]
> > > 
> > > Is there a limit on the number of slots?
> > 
> > The slots are dynamically allocated by the driver, so there is no practical
> > limit. Each slot currently takes 44 bytes, and allocating a few kilobytes of
> > kernel memory is not a problem.
> > 
> > > Will all drivers with ABS_MT_TRACKING_ID use slots? if not, how can I know
> > > in advance if a device may use slots or not?
> > 
> > Eventually, this might become true, but you are pointing at one of the weaker
> > points of the current setup. There is no bit field for the EV_SYN events, so
> > there is no way to know in advance if SYN_MT_SYNC or SYN_MT_SLOT is used. This
> > could quite possibly be added to the EVIO interface. Meanwhile, the method I use
> > is to detect the first SYN_MT_SLOT and select parser based on that information.
> 
> I'd really prefer if there was some way to detect this. While I'm not quite
> sure how the matching X drivers would look like it's likely that the setups
> will be different for drivers that support slots and those that don't.
> e.g. those that don't have slots simply send events as valuators, those that
> do may split into multiple devices.
> 
> Doing this at runtime - after the device has been set up is...tricky.
> 

Right, I think we should try our hardest to allow userspace base
protocol decoding decisions on device capabilities and not the event
datastream. What about moving from SYN_MT_SLOT to ABS_MT_SLOT? I think
it makes more sense since it is not a simple marker but carries data
(slot number).

-- 
Dmitry
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