touch screen DE

[gillespie]

Hi all

Im sure youve realised touch screens are becoming popular recently, with the release of the iphone and the announcement of m$ surface. Linux needs its answer to this. All the technologies are in place (not all merged yet) we have all the fancy graphics (aiglx) multi touch (mpx) solid supporting libraries (i personally like kdelibs, much to be improved in kde4) and i heard talk of input redirection flying around. I have been 'designing' a desktop environment for a touch table in my head for a while now, and although i am quite proficient in c(++) i am relatively unacquainted with xlib (altough im working through the manual). I want to know if there would be demand for such a product, as i believe personally that its a niche that linux could slip into easily.

Its hard to put all my ideas down in text, but basically the wm should be ergonomic (two fingers to resize, palm to move, 'scrunch' to close) apps should be given a 'touch friendly' makeover, but work from the same underlying libraries and data (eg an email client that pops openable envelopes on screen, read from your kmail inbox, a simple word processor thats just a blank sheet of paper, just drag the sheet to a folder to save). And i like the 'object recognition' ive seen in some videos. Such if you drop your phone on the table it detects it by weight and shape, and automagically syncs it via bluetooth, or whatever. Theres a few more ideas floating around, but more are welcome!

Finally the issue is time, but if i see a large enough interest, im sure i can make time

Thanks all

tom

[Agent-X]

No, not popular. They are becoming popular again.

[gillespie]

well yea, thats what i meant. but sureley the foss world should jump on the bandwagon quickly?