Re: [w3ctag/design-reviews] Extending the PointerEvent with Unique DeviceId Attribute (Issue #880)

Thanks for your response!

_We wanted to clarify - it seems there is no way to persist device IDs across sessions with the current design. In your example, if your session is interrupted your color assigned to each device might swap. Is that the intention?_
Yes in the current design, the device id does not persist across sessions, only through the session. Persisting the device id across sessions would introduce some further questions - such as how long to keep the device id, preventing fingerprinting (if for example multiple people use one browser with their own pens).

_We're also concerned about the usefulness of this for devices that don't have a hardware ID - since it seems they wouldn't be able to be differentiated within a session?_
Devices with no hardware ID will not have a device id in the current design. Perhaps in lieu of the hardware ID itself, we can use other features that the device has implemented to differentiate itself from other devices. If there is no such feature in the device, then the device ID can't work by nature. 

_For devices with a hardware ID, would the deviceId be the same as the pointerId? If so, maybe this could just be a flag indicating that the pointerId is stable? If not, why not?_
We considered repurposing pointer id as the device id. However, the main issue we ran into was that in some instances, the physical device does not provide a hardware id. An example is the surface pen on the pointer down. When creating the PointerDown event, the browser needs to have a pointerId. For the subsequent PointerMove, a device Id is present, but the pointerId can't change for the stroke. Therefore, it makes sense to have the two separate values to indicate the state.

_Also can you clarify where this work will end up for standardization. It seems that this belongs in the Pointer Events Working Group - but that group is due to close off in a month. Is the intention to open up this group again for further updates, or do you envision bringing this to WebApps or some other working group?_
We're currently going through the WICG and will work on an extension spec. I'm not quite sure which WG will end up owning the Pointer Events/Events space, but we are happy to work with anyone willing to take this on.



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