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The Multi-Pointer X server
worufu writes "Some weeks after releasing the MPX (Multi-Pointer X Server), the Linux world slowly seems to draw attention to the project which opens up the limits of simultaneous input devices of the current X server. The future possibities are unlimited and I cannot wait to see some nice applications supporting the advantages of multiple input devices.
From the project description: 'The Multi-Pointer X Server is an enhanced X server to support multiple mice. It provides users with one cursor per device. Each cursor can operate independently. A multicursor windowing system allows two-handed interaction with legacy applications, but also the creation of innovative applications and user interfaces.'"
From the project description: 'The Multi-Pointer X Server is an enhanced X server to support multiple mice. It provides users with one cursor per device. Each cursor can operate independently. A multicursor windowing system allows two-handed interaction with legacy applications, but also the creation of innovative applications and user interfaces.'"
FINALLY! I can play multi-player xPong at work and never again have to argue who gets the mouse!
Using two mice reminds me of Anakin Skywalker, with his two lightsabers. And I don't need to remind ANYONE here what happened to HIM.
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... when Microsoft will "innovate" this.
Why, yes! I AM new here.
if they made X natively support more than 3 mouse buttons. Or if X could automatically detect usable refresh rates/screen resolutions for my monitor.
What an excellent way to make every toolkit vulnerable to thousands of race conditions ;)
You can probably crash 99% of all X11 applications using two pointers
I always wondered when multiple mice would be supported.
It's great for when someone remotely logs on to help a user with a problem.
Gameplay would be very interesting - Use one mouse to point and shoot while using another to move around.
You can tutor someone else on the same computer. Maybe have the mice look different so there's no confusion.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
Did you really mean BETWEEN slashdotters, or *amongst* slashdotters?
Definately a different connotation.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
Lemmings also had two mice support in the two player levels.
As did a lot of games back on the Amiga, even PD games.
I remember an Asteroid PD clone where you moved the character with one joystick and with the other joystick you controlled the fire beam.
Was quite an immersive feeling.
UnNetHack: NetHack Improved!
Well, I think you're on the right track here.
In user interfaces, we basically assume that the computer interacts with one person at a tim But real world scenarios, two or more people can work on the same thing at the same time, or on different parts of the same thing, or on different things in the same space then put them together. But it's not possible to do this naturally on a single computer.
The key I think will to be to find the right metaphor, without being excessively literal. In the Desktop metaphor, windows are really like sheets of paper that can be shuffled around. I remember seeing this for the first time, and there was a tremendous sense that this would liberate us from a lot of artificial limitations. But sheets of paper aren't resizable, and don't have scroll bars. Many times in the early years, attempts were made to make the metaphor literal, showing a representation of a desk with file drawers, papers on top, and desk accessories like clocks and calculators. These attempts at literalism turned out to be a waste of space and time, and the metaphor was pared down to its barest essential: a two dimensional surface on which things can be arranged.
The shared computer is an important evolutionary step, but there are going to be a lot of missteps created by excessive literalism, until the fundamental transformation takes place in peoples' heads.
Two trends are going to unite in the future: the continued reduction in size and cost of computing hardware, and the continued increase in ubiquity and affordability of wireless networking. I see the end result, some time in the next twenty-five to fifty years, as this: the computer as we know it will no longer be the primary interface of human beings to information processing technology. By this I mean your grand children won't routinely carry laptops and PDAs, any more than you carry a riding crop. Instead, we will have computer enhanced environments in which people work in a natural and shared way. Interfaces will be heterogenous, from large wall sized screens or interactive tabletops, goggles that computer enhance vision (e.g. overlaying an animation on top of the copy machine to show how to unjam it), and countless sensors.
Naturally these environments will be shared, otherwise they aren't really environments.
This Multi-Pointer technology doesn't get us there, but it enables some steps in the right direction.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
See the complicated configuration:
Now getting touchpad on my laptop to do all the cool stuff (up and back scroll buttions, iPod-like circular scrolling, etc) was a little more involved. I set a udev rule to make the device name explicit and I had to find the configuration entry on the net and cut-and-paste...
udev rule created in "new" file
This is on ubuntu with the current "stock" 2.6.15 kernel and Xorg packages.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press