4 ms·

Caveat: may not include an awesome trackpad driver.

by rfoo 6y ago

coldtea 6y ago
If it includes a GPU driver, then the trackpad driver is trivial compared to that. Actually manufacturing the trackpad hardware might be difficult/expensive, but since that's already a given, the driver can be tweaked in tons of ways to fit the regular macOS experience...
- rfoo 6y ago
  True, but then why don't we have awesome Linux trackpad drivers for Intel Macbooks?
  - coldtea 6y ago
    Isn't there a 1-2 year old project that claims to have made great trackpad driver behavior in Linux? I think this is the case I remember: https://bill.harding.blog/2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-pro-may-2020-update/ https://bill.harding.blog/2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-m...
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - Siira 6y ago
    We don’t even have them for Bootcamp.
- TimTheTinker 6y ago
  Apple’s trackpad driver is massive, I think. Do not underestimate the amount of detailed work that went into it.
- ankka 6y ago
  Doing output is trivial compared to properly handling any type of free-form user input.
  - coldtea 6y ago
    A GPU driver for a new undocumentated architecture is "trivial" compared to properly doing an input driver for a touchpad? You make "properly handling any type of free-form user input" sound like rocket science, when it's the regular multi-touch kind of driver we have on billions of mobiles, and laptops... The "properly" here is just the sauce for macOS handling, not some inherent difficulty of "handling any type of free-form user input" on a 2D surface...
    - auggierose 6y ago
      It's because there is no great trackpad support outside the Mac. But there is good GPU support. So it seems, getting great trackpad support IS rocket science currently, for whatever reason. (I also wonder, what is going on there? I guess people on the other platforms just don't care about this detail, otherwise they would be on the Mac anyway).
      - tibbetts 6y ago
        I imagine getting the trackpad right is either a giant pile of heuristic rules, or a nice tagged data set for ML, or both, maybe with a side of online learning from usage. A trackpad that automatically does the right thing for me coding, my 12 year old gaming, and my 8 year old with sloppy fine motor control does seem like rocket science to me.
      - aksss 6y ago
        There are a lot of crappy trackpads on crappy PC laptops, but the ones on the high-end laptops are quite serviceable even if not the ideal version that Apple created. With a serviceable trackpad, the other benefits of having a PC over a Mac tend to far outweigh the trackpad (for people that value what a PC brings).
        auggierose 6y ago
        Yes, I understand that, I am just not getting my head around why for example Windows is so bad with a trackpad either. I mean, how tough would it be for Microsoft to nail this if they cared?

Caveat: may not include an awesome trackpad driver.

by rfoo 6y ago

Caveat: may not include an awesome trackpad driver.

If it includes a GPU driver, then the trackpad driver is trivial compared to that. Actually manufacturing the trackpad hardware might be difficult/expensive, but since that's already a given, the driver can be tweaked in tons of ways to fit the regular macOS experience...

rfoo 6y ago
True, but then why don't we have awesome Linux trackpad drivers for Intel Macbooks?
- coldtea 6y ago
  Isn't there a 1-2 year old project that claims to have made great trackpad driver behavior in Linux? I think this is the case I remember: https://bill.harding.blog/2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-pro-may-2020-update/ https://bill.harding.blog/2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-m...
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- Siira 6y ago
  We don’t even have them for Bootcamp.
TimTheTinker 6y ago
Apple’s trackpad driver is massive, I think. Do not underestimate the amount of detailed work that went into it.
ankka 6y ago
Doing output is trivial compared to properly handling any type of free-form user input.
- coldtea 6y ago
  A GPU driver for a new undocumentated architecture is "trivial" compared to properly doing an input driver for a touchpad? You make "properly handling any type of free-form user input" sound like rocket science, when it's the regular multi-touch kind of driver we have on billions of mobiles, and laptops... The "properly" here is just the sauce for macOS handling, not some inherent difficulty of "handling any type of free-form user input" on a 2D surface...
  - auggierose 6y ago
    It's because there is no great trackpad support outside the Mac. But there is good GPU support. So it seems, getting great trackpad support IS rocket science currently, for whatever reason. (I also wonder, what is going on there? I guess people on the other platforms just don't care about this detail, otherwise they would be on the Mac anyway).
    - tibbetts 6y ago
      I imagine getting the trackpad right is either a giant pile of heuristic rules, or a nice tagged data set for ML, or both, maybe with a side of online learning from usage. A trackpad that automatically does the right thing for me coding, my 12 year old gaming, and my 8 year old with sloppy fine motor control does seem like rocket science to me.
    - aksss 6y ago
      There are a lot of crappy trackpads on crappy PC laptops, but the ones on the high-end laptops are quite serviceable even if not the ideal version that Apple created. With a serviceable trackpad, the other benefits of having a PC over a Mac tend to far outweigh the trackpad (for people that value what a PC brings).
      - auggierose 6y ago
        Yes, I understand that, I am just not getting my head around why for example Windows is so bad with a trackpad either. I mean, how tough would it be for Microsoft to nail this if they cared?