stroyan@hpfcso.HP.COM (Mike Stroyan) (02/07/90)
r1yc@VAX1.CC.UAKRON.EDU (Yutang Chuang) writes: >> seth@ZURICH.AI.MIT.EDU (Seth Goldstein) writes: >> >>I'm interested in using a digitizer as a pointing device. >>Could someone please point me in the right direction? >>(Any existing extensions or extension proposals out there?) > >I am also interested in using a digitizer (especially large size >i.e. E-size and above) as a pointing device. > >We have an HP9000/370 and HP does support digitizers but those are >only up to ANSI B-size and also use HP-HIL interface. If we use >other vendors' E-size digitizers they are usually RS-232 interface. >How can we integrate an RS-232 E-size digitizer with X11 (actually >with HP's X11 since we intend to use the digitizer with HP's graphic >starbase-in-X) and still maintain full function of digitizer feature >such as rubberbanding in starbase and X11? Am I asking for something >which is not there? I would appreciate any helpful comments. Thanks. The X server will work with an HIL digitizer as the pointer device, but there is no support for other digitizers. The HIL devices can be specified in /usr/lib/X0devices. There is a way that other, serial interface, digitizers might be used with the X server and Starbase libraries. It involves quite a bit of work. You could write a program that reads data from the serial digitizer and uses the data to mimic an HIL device file. By using a pty device, the program could respond to ioctl and read calls just as an HIL device file would. The pty device is documented in the PTY(7) section of the "HP-UX Reference". You would need to match the interface documented in the HIL(7) section of the "HP-UX Reference" and in "Facilities for Series 200/300/500 HP-UX Concepts and Tutorials" in the chapter "Using HP-HIL Devices with HP-UX". Another useful HP-HIL reference is "HP-HIL Technical Reference Manual", product number 45918A. The last is not shipped standard with the HP-UX manual set, but is the best reference for understanding HP-HIL devices. Once you start your program running, the pty slave device file could be linked to a path that the X server or Starbase library expects to be an HIL tablet. Then when the server is started it will work just as if you had an E-size HIL tablet. Mike Stroyan, stroyan@hpfcla.hp.com