ClickPads and Click Actions

[Clint Byrum]

Excerpts from Chase Douglas's message of Wed Feb 29 16:20:04 -0800 2012:
> On 02/29/2012 04:07 PM, Nicholas Skaggs wrote:
> > Chase, I already had 2 finger tapping for right click in oneiric... This
> > would be a regression, unless I'm mistaken. The multitouch click and
> > drag is huge on the these devices, so I would have to say that's the
> > more important one. Are you saying you can do that along with allowing
> > right click by pressing the right side of the pad? If I didn't want to
> > split my clickpad, how else could I right click under your scenario?
> 
> First, I need to clear one issue up: tapping vs pressing. On a clickpad, 
> the user can tap by momentarily touching the touch surface without 
> depressing the touchpad itself. A press is performed when the user 
> physically presses on the touchpad so that it moves downward and causes 
> a physical button press to be emitted.
> 
> Under all options, two touch tap to emit a right click will work as it 
> always has. Note that tap to click is not enabled by default.
> 
> The issue lies with two touch press to perform a right button press. In 
> clickpad mode, this will not be possible and is a regression. The 
> options for getting right click behavior are: a) enable the right button 
> area or b) enable tap to click and perform a two-touch tap. There are 
> many people who hate tap to click, so relying on b would be bad.
> 

As a former tap-to-click hater who has come back around, I think this
was largely a result of the drivers being deficient at identifying
intentional vs. unintentional touches to the touchpad.

With each release, this behavior has gotten better.. in 11.04 it was
impossible to have tap to click on. In 11.10 it was actually fine on
my MacBookPro 5,1, but just plain didn't work on my Air 4,1. So far in
precise, both of them have been 99% effective at avoiding the dreaded
"oops" click when using the default evdev driver. The synaptics input
driver still has problems.

So just put me down as somebody who used to express frustration over the
dismal state of tap to click, but now quite enjoys it, and will be fine
with having that, and two-finger-tap for right clicking on my two Macs.

> If we make the assumption that right click must be possible, then we 
> either need to enable the right button area whenever clickpad 
> functionality is enabled, or we need to disable clickpad functionality.
> 

When I bought my MacBookAir 4,1, I actually couldn't right click at
all, because of some driver weirdness in 11.10. I spent 3 months with
no right click.  It was quite liberating, and I found only a few areas
where it was annoying to have to use the keyboard menu key to emulate it.

That said, yes I think its still a requirement that there be some way
to do it. Now that I can right click (with two finger tap) I find that
the whole user experience is better.