Re: WebEvents-ISSUE-24: Concern about Gamepad name being unclear

On Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 5:19 PM, Scott Graham <scottmg@google.com> wrote:
>> That said, Alexy mentioned "Game Controller" and indeed wikipedia considers
>> it a generic name for many "types of game controllers":
>>
>>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_controller
>
> Yes, I think that would also be a reasonable name. In the Sept 20th
> meeting, the consensus was that calling it GameController invited too
> much generality and lead the spec into areas that we did not want to
> be involved in. On that basis, I think we should stick with Gamepad.
> I'm happy to discuss on next week's call or here if anyone has further
> thoughts of course.

This was our main concern with "Game Controller". We don't want the
naming to imply a broader scope than we're committed to. I think the
naming concern is a bit overblown. I originally referred to it as a
"Joystick API" not because I envisioned a different scope, or a
different type of device being supported, but because that's
historically been the name used to refer to game controllers in every
API I've ever used[1][2][3]. I changed my mind after hearing feedback
from other people that that term was outdated, and wasn't understood
the way I meant. At no time has any of the name change discussion
implied a change in scope or supported type of device.

-Ted

1. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee418631%28v=VS.85%29.aspx
2. http://wiki.libsdl.org/moin.cgi/CategoryJoystick
3. http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/input/joystick.txt

Received on Friday, 14 October 2011 12:11:40 UTC