[sugar] PenTablet user interface

[Eben Eliason]

Hi Pat -

I think that the technical solutions you've identified sound quite
good, and make some nice improvements on my initial behavioral sketch
as written up for the Paint activity.  I'd definitely be interested in
seeing any technical demos you have working, and also would like the
chance to work with you on some graphical aspects of the widget and/or
the experience (and hance, the API) for more complex use cases.

- Eben


On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 3:27 PM, Patrick Dubroy <pdubroy at gmail.com> wrote:
> (This was posted to olpc-devel a few weeks ago, but I just realized
>  that it belongs more on this list)
>
>  Hi,
>
>   I'm working on a project to improve the PenTablet support. I have two
>   main goals:
>
>   1. Build a GTK widget that an application developer could use to get
>   tablet support "for free". The widget would provide a 1-to-1 mapping
>   between the physical tablet and the on-screen drawing area. For
>   example, a penmanship application might have an area on-screen where a
>   child could practice their writing.
>
>   2. For the more complicated case of freehand drawing in e.g. the Paint
>   activity, my goal is to define the interface through which the user
>   will be able to draw on an arbitrary area of the canvas.
>
>   Of course, this is all pending proper driver support for the
>   PenTablet. For now, I am prototyping these applications by reading
>   directly from /dev/input/event5.
>
>   I know that this has been discussed previously on the mailing list,
>   but to my knowledge there's been no agreement on exactly how the UI
>   will work for the PenTablet. I've created a page in the wiki
>   (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/PenTablet_UI) that summarizes the previous
>   suggestions that I am aware of. If you have any opinions on this,
>   please take a look at let me know what you think.
>
>   My personal feeling is that the best option is this:
>   - the tablet is always mapped to a rectangle in the center of the
>   screen. Using the grab button and the stylus, the canvas can be moved
>   around underneath the rectangle (Option 1 for Adjusting the Mapping)
>   - to allow for precise drawing, the user can engage a "hover mode" by
>   holding down the Alt key while dragging the stylus (Option B for
>   Precise Drawing)
>
>   I have an application which demonstrates some of these techniques,
>   which I could make available to anyone who is interested. I am also
>   planning on doing a small, informal user study to test some of the
>   techniques.
>
>   Pat
>   --
>   Patrick Dubroy
>   http://dubroy.com/blog - on programming, usability, and hci
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