Re: PSA: publishing new WD of Gamepad on April 14

Why doesn't the Gamepad API fire events for button pushes or axis
movements? For example when pressing a mouse button or moving the mouse the
browser fires "mousedown" and "mousemove". The Gamepad API however requires
you to passively poll the state regularly (probably in rAF) and look for
changes yourself. Why does it not fire events like "gamepadbuttondown" or
"gamepadaxischange"? This would have a few advantages:

- it would be consistent with the way all other input events are handled on
the web platform
- it is easier to program for. As it stands since there is nothing like a
"gamepadbuttondown" event, so if you want one, you have to implement it
yourself by polling the state, keeping the previous polled state, and
comparing the differences looking for a previously up but currently down
state and then run your handler.
- browsers have a couple of important features that can only work in a
"user gesture", such as opening a popup window, copying to the clipboard,
or - critically for games! - starting audio (or video) playback on mobile.
Since the Gamepad API does not fire events, this does not integrate nicely
with the existing "user gesture" model, and therefore currently no browser
allows these features to be triggered by gamepad input. Considering the use
case of a gamepad controlling a browser game on a tablet, it's pretty
embarrassing that you can't play audio without resorting to some other kind
of input, like regularly leaning forwards to touch the screen.

This could involve significant changes to the spec, but I think it's
necessary. It looks a bit like a first draft that never got reconsidered.

Ashley Gullen
Scirra.com



On 9 April 2015 at 12:52, Arthur Barstow <art.barstow@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> A new Working Draft publication of Gamepad is planned for April 14 using
> the following version as the basis:
>
>   <https://w3c.github.io/gamepad/publish/gamepad.html>
>
> If anyone has any major concerns about this, please reply right away.
>
> A few notes about this spec:
>
> * This spec is now using Github <https://github.com/w3c/gamepad> and the
> ED is <https://w3c.github.io/gamepad/gamepad.html>. PRs are welcome and
> encouraged.
>
> * The permissions of the spec's now obsolete Hg repository will be set to
> read-only.
>
> * After Ted copies the open Bugzilla bugs to Github, the spec's Bugzilla
> component will be marked `Historical` and set to read-only.
>
> -Thanks, ArtB
>
>
>