Re: [w3c/gamepad] Should fire events instead of using passive model (#4)

I'd like to quote what I wrote in #15 since it sums up my thoughts on an event based model:

>Has there been any more movement on this? I also think it'd be welcoming to have an event-driven model, but only as an inclusion alongside the polling model as well.
>
>The following question was asked in #22:
>> With that in mind, I guess my question to you is: do you know any practical examples where lost gamepad events are actually a real problem?
>
>Lost gamepad events can be a real problem when the intended use is for accurate input visualization. A lost frame of data can be reasonable in terms of displaying said data, but an inconsistency between axis values or when two or more buttons were pressed simultaneously is not. 
>
>The suggested approach to #4 to remedy such a scenario (the API providing an event subscription strategy for multiple axes/buttons/etc) doesn't account for this kind of scenario because it could create a disconnect between axes and button represented at a fixed point in time due to the asynchronicity.
>
>We could then propose something like `onGamepadChange` that would subscribe to the entire gamepad, but something like that would feel like a bastardization of the polling strategy, and would that really be better than polling from the start?
>
>It's why I'm not against the inclusion of events, but the removal of polling wouldn't allow for the kind of scenarios I'm depicting. For something like adding gamepads as a form of navigational input for a webpage, events would be the perfect approach since it'd be idiomatic in comparison to other event-driven practices and wouldn't necessarily encounter the kind of issues I mentioned above.
>
>This also isn't a theoretical application either. I run and manage [gamepadviewer.com](gamepadviewer.com), which does exactly what it says, and the amount of usage is not insignificant, either. According to the [`getGamepads()` feature data](https://www.chromestatus.com/metrics/feature/timeline/popularity/1916), the site ranks at least 34th in the list, so everything I've posited isn't hyperbole.

Since there hasn't been any discussion on this in a while, it'd be nice to get some talk going again as there doesn't seem to be a consensus so far.

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Received on Thursday, 18 June 2020 21:36:37 UTC