touchpad: can we reverse up and down like iPod?

[Chase Douglas]

On 11/03/2010 03:16 PM, Peter Hendriks wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> would it be possible to enhance the touchpad properties/settings with an
> option for the two-finger scrolling to reverse up and down.
> 
> The reason is that when you frequently use iPod Touch and the like, the
> touchscreen or touchpad is used in a way that resembles
> the way when you put your fingers on a piece of paper. When you move
> your fingers down, the visible part moves up. And when
> you move your fingers up, the visible part becomes the lower part of the
> window.
> 
> Now, without the reverse up/down, there is no alignment towards the new
> way of scrolling used in not only Apple devices but
> also Samsung and others use this.

Hi Peter,

This is really due to a difference in device types. Touchpads are
indirect devices whereas touchscreens are direct devices. Direct devices
affect objects where you touch them in real space. Indirect devices
affect objects through some intermediary mechanism like a mouse cursor.

Right now there's ongoing work upstream in X.org to properly handle
multitouch devices. One part of this work entails identifying direct and
indirect devices and handling them as appropriate. I doubt we will need
a user configuration setting to ensure things work properly.

If you want to be more involved in this upstream development discussion,
I suggest following the multi-touch-dev at lists.launchpad.net and/or
xorg-devel at lists.x.org mailing lists. Otherwise, I believe you can rest
assured that your thoughts are being accounted for in the current design
work.

Thanks,

-- Chase