Mode Switching Coming For Graphics Tablets In Libinput 1.4

Written by Michael Larabel in Hardware on 11 July 2016 at 07:42 AM EDT. 1 Comment
HARDWARE
Linux input expert Peter Hutterer at Red Hat has shared an upcoming feature of libinput 1.4: mode switching support for graphics tablet (e.g. Wacom tablets) for switching through different behavior depending upon button presses.

Peter described the mode switching in the context of graphics tablets, "The important terms here are 'mode' and 'mode group'. A mode is a logical set of button, strip and ring functions, as interpreted by the compositor or the client. How they are used is up to them as well. The Wacom control panels for OS X and Windows allow mode assignment only to the strip and rings while the buttons remain in the same mode at all times. We assign a mode to each button so a caller may provide differing functionality on each button. But that's optional, having a OS X/Windows-style configuration is easy, just ignore the button modes. A mode group is a physical set of buttons, strips and rings that belong together."

If you own a graphics/drawing tablet and are interested in the mode / mode-group features coming up for libinput 1.4, see Peter's blog post for all of the details.
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