I wasn't commenting on the GSoC; just reinforcing Eric's point that a multitouch interface would be very interesting in itself and pointing out that such a device in conjunction with a 3d extension would be even more fun! But yes, a multitouch interface design would make a nice GSoC project. Nothing directly useful may come of it but one never knows. Look at bumptop.com -- that interface started out as a student project. Look at the kind of things people do with openframeworks.cc code.
Plan9 can be a far simpler platform for things like that. Imagine a multitouch device that dynamically creates a set of pointer streams /dev/mt/{0,1,...} with each mt/n acting like /dev/mouse. Or you can have a single multiplexed stream, where each read returns, for example, keychar ptr-index x y msec [blob-size [blob-type]] When you lift your finger the blob-size becomes 0. If you don't press it again within some time period and within a small distance of its expected position, the ptr disappears. Or something like that! A program to map camera input to /dev/mt would give you a cheap multitouch device. As for GSoC, if students pick projects that get their creative juices flowing *and* if they can produce something tangible (but not necessarily useful) in threee months, that'd be success in my eyes. FWIW. On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:32:31 -0300 "Federico G. Benavento" <benave...@gmail.com> wrote: > my questions were more about the real usage of iphone's dt > my short sighted vision of the gsoc is this, I didn't use any > of the stuff that gsoc 2007 got us, though I recognize the > inferno ds port. > but for the rest, it might be interesting, but is someone > using that stuff? > > iphone's drawterm sounds like something that very few > people will use (the ones that have a cpu server and an > iphone) in not that much often, of course it could be > interesting to have it, but... > > I think that gsoc is a good chance to get going stuff that > we need and we will really use. > > think of the openssh port, I did that, not for a gsoc and > people use it, some guy even wrote a filesystem which > suits lot's of people's needs. > > > > On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 12:20 AM, Bakul Shah <bakul+pl...@bitblocks.com> wr= > ote: > > On Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:25:07 CDT Eric Van Hensbergen <eri...@gmail.com> = > =C2=A0wrote: > >> Also, figuring out how multitouch works with plan 9 would be valuable > >> in itself -- although admitadly could be done without an iPhone. > > > > Exactly what I was thinking while reading this thread! =C2=A0An > > intuitive multitouch interface that goes beyond cut-n-paste > > would go very well with a 3D graphics protocol. 9gl anyone?! > > > > > > > > --=20 > Federico G. Benavento >