POINTER(3)                                             POINTER(3)

     NAME
          pointer - mouse and stylus interface

     SYNOPSIS
          bind -a #m /dev

          /dev/cursor
          /dev/pointer

     DESCRIPTION
          The pointer device is the interface to input from a mouse,
          stylus, or some other device for pointing at positions on a
          display.  On some platforms, the pointer is associated with
          a cursor on the display, that is displayed at the current
          pointer position.  There often are buttons associated with
          the pointer, whether on the pointing device or elsewhere.
          For instance, some of the buttons on a PDA might be associ-
          ated with the stylus not a keypad, to allow modification of
          stylus actions when there are are no buttons on the stylus
          itself.  In the hosted environment of emu(1), the pointer is
          associated with the host system's own pointing device.

          Reading the pointer file returns the current pointer posi-
          tion and the state of any buttons associated with the
          pointer.  The read blocks until the state has changed since
          the last read.  Each read returns a 49 byte record:

               mx y buttons msec

          Each record has the letter m immedlately followed by four
          11-character decimal numbers, each number ended by a blank.
          X and y give the coordinates of the pointer in display coor-
          dinates; the value buttons has bit (1<<b) set when button b
          is down; and msec is a time stamp in milliseconds.

          Writing a record of the above form to pointer moves the dis-
          played cursor to the given x and y position; buttons and
          msec are ignored.

          Writing an image(6) file to the cursor file sets the image
          of the cursor on the display.  Reading cursor returns the
          current cursor image, again in image(6) format.

     SOURCE
          /emu/port/devpointer.c
          /os/port/devpointer.c

     SEE ALSO
          wm(1), draw-intro(2), image(6)

     Page 1                       Plan 9            (printed 10/31/24)