ClickPads and Click Actions

[Scott Kitterman]

On Wednesday, February 29, 2012 04:46:08 PM Chase Douglas wrote:
> On 02/29/2012 03:32 PM, Scott Kitterman wrote:
> > On Wednesday, February 29, 2012 01:11:30 PM Chase Douglas wrote:
> >> Hi all,
> >> 
> >> I'm sending this to both ubuntu-devel and ubuntu-desktop to try to get
> >> a
> >> larger pool of feedback.
> >> 
> >> I recently added "ClickPad" support in Precise. This is automatically
> >> picked up by most Synaptics and all Apple Macbook trackpads. It will
> >> soon be picked up by more Synaptics trackpads and the Apple Magic
> >> Trackpad. ClickPad support entails the ability to press the trackpad
> >> with one finger and perform a drag by moving a second finger.
> >> 
> >> The problem we face is that currently "ClickPad" support conflicts
> >> with
> >> "click actions". Click actions is the term for supporting right button
> >> behavior by clicking on the trackpad with two fingers. This has been
> >> supported for years, and has helped people perform right clicks on
> >> clickpad devices before the clickpad support landed in Precise.
> >> Unfortunately, we can't have clickpad support and click action support
> >> at the same time yet (ran out of time for Precise).
> >> 
> >> One feature that hasn't been turned on by default yet is a right
> >> button
> >> area. On Synaptics trackpads, the lower right area of the trackpad is
> >> marked as a right button. If you enable the right button area and then
> >> press with one finger in the area, a right button click will be
> >> emitted.
> >> 
> >> We can enable the right button area by default for all clickpads. The
> >> problem is that Apple trackpads do not have a marking for a right
> >> button
> >> area, and OS X doesn't provide such a feature. People coming from OS X
> >> will have to figure out that we a) don't have click action support,
> >> and
> >> b) if you click in the lower right area you will perform a right
> >> button
> >> click. However, people coming from OS X also expect to be able to
> >> click
> >> and drag with two fingers...
> >> 
> >> Our options are:
> >> 
> >> * Disable clickpad support by default
> >> * Enable clickpad support, but disable right button area by default
> >> * Enable clickpad support and right button area by default
> >> 
> >> We can have a different default for Apple trackpads and everything
> >> else.
> >> 
> >> The next Precise kernel will enable clickpad support for all known
> >> trackpads by default, but right button area remains disabled. Until
> >> then, you can manually enable support by finding your trackpad device
> >> id
> >> using 'xinput', then running the following scripts:
> >> 
> >> http://people.canonical.com/~cndougla/enable-clickpad.sh
> >> http://people.canonical.com/~cndougla/enable-rightbutton.sh
> >> 
> >> If you have tried all the options and have an opinion on which option
> >> we
> >> should take, please send your thoughts.
> > 
> > What happens with the right button area on systems that have physical
> > buttons?
> There are no changes for devices that have separate physical buttons.
> 
> > Generically, it seems to me that the time for changing long standing
> > defaults is LTS+1, not LTS.
> 
> When the default behavior is so bad that people use external mice rather
> than deal with the trackpad, it's worth it to try to fix things. I see
> clickpad support as a bug fix. The question is at what point does fixing
> the bug take precedence over potential default behavior changes.
> 
> I will note you as a vote for "Disable clickpad support by default",
> since that aligns closest with your thoughts here. Let me know if that's
> not accurate.

I think it is.

Just to note, tap to click is enabled by default on Kubuntu, so it's not 
consistent among all the flavors.

Scott K