4 ms·

Browsers that support TouchEvents: - Chrome (desktop and mobile) - Safari (mobile) - Firefox (mobile, and now desktop) Browsers that support Microsoft's

Browsers that support TouchEvents: - Chrome (desktop and mobile) - Safari (mobile) - Firefox (mobile, and now desktop) Browsers that support Microsoft's proposed PointerEvents: - Internet Explorer (desktop and mobile) I get in theory why having a combined touch/pen/mouse API is a good idea, but MS's proposal makes handling multiple touches concurrently much harder than it should be. It'd be nice if they'd get over themselves and implement the same standard as everyone else (especially if they want to be relevant in a world where touch interactions are designed primarily for WebKit, while they have vanishingly low market share in touch-first devices.)

pilif 14y ago
Isn't there a patent by apple related to the touch events that makes it unsafe and risky to implement them? http://blog.jquery.com/2012/04/10/getting-touchy-about-patents/ http://blog.jquery.com/2012/04/10/getting-touchy-about-paten...
- meaty 14y ago
  Does this apply in the EU?
  - pilif 14y ago
    It might or it might not. In theory, we don't have software patents, but some tend to still slip through (maybe this one did? I don't know). It's totally beside the point anyways because the moment as a browser maker has an office in the US and is distributing the infringing software there, they can be sued there. MS, as far as I remember, has an office in the US :p
josteink 14y ago
From what I've heard Microsoft's PointerEvents offer a better complete model, without creating a web-standard which involves risks of getting sued by Apple should you ever dare to implement it. For once, it seems Microsoft has a better option. And no, just because it's in WebKit doesn't make it better, much less an official standard. WebKit is the new IE and it's destructive for the web. People design for "Webkit" as if it was the standard, and expect everyone else "to eventually come along". We did see how well that plays out not that many years ago, but then we did it for MSIE. As a 5 minute user of Firefox mobile, I can attest to this happening right now. The mobile web is at this point not even usuable on a non-webkit browser. This is bad for the web. You are doing it. Please stop doing it. The only thing good for the web is following web-standards. If you're not complying to them, you are doing something wrong, and I don't care what your reason is: You are doing something wrong.
- noibl 14y ago
  > For once, it seems Microsoft has a better option. Not for the first time. * { box-sizing: border-box; } is a staple of mine. > WebKit is the new IE and it's destructive for the web. Microsoft has submitted a patch to the WebKit project to extend the open source rendering engine with a prototype implementation of the Pointer Events specification that the company is also working on together with Google, Mozilla, and Opera. ... The first specification, Touch Events, has been essentially abandoned.[1] > The mobile web is at this point not even usuable on a non-webkit browser. This is bad for the web. You are doing it. Please stop doing it. There's no need to hector web developers about this. (I assume that's what you meant by 'you'.) It's mostly up to the browser makers to hash this out. Microsoft's contribution to Webkit was an exemplary and, from what I can see, much-welcomed response to Apple's patent shenanigans over Touch. Let's just give it time. It's worth bearing in mind that Android (which ships Webkit by default) is currently the only mainstream mobile OS that even allows unrestricted use of independent browser technology, which is partly why Firefox Mobile is only available for that platform. [1] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/microsoft-offers-patches-to-webkit-to-aid-touch-compatibility/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/micros...
  - bsimpson 14y ago
    I forgot about that. Wonder when/if it will land in Chrome...
- bsimpson 14y ago
  I'm not only partial to TouchEvents because they're better supported across browsers. IE makes you handle all the pointers independently, which is great for toy demos of drawing apps, but really cumbersome for actually implementing gestures with compared to simply iterating over TouchEvent.targetTouches.

pilif 14y ago

Isn't there a patent by apple related to the touch events that makes it unsafe and risky to implement them? http://blog.jquery.com/2012/04/10/getting-touchy-about-patents/ http://blog.jquery.com/2012/04/10/getting-touchy-about-paten...

meaty 14y ago
Does this apply in the EU?
- pilif 14y ago
  It might or it might not. In theory, we don't have software patents, but some tend to still slip through (maybe this one did? I don't know). It's totally beside the point anyways because the moment as a browser maker has an office in the US and is distributing the infringing software there, they can be sued there. MS, as far as I remember, has an office in the US :p

josteink 14y ago

From what I've heard Microsoft's PointerEvents offer a better complete model, without creating a web-standard which involves risks of getting sued by Apple should you ever dare to implement it. For once, it seems Microsoft has a better option. And no, just because it's in WebKit doesn't make it better, much less an official standard. WebKit is the new IE and it's destructive for the web. People design for "Webkit" as if it was the standard, and expect everyone else "to eventually come along". We did see how well that plays out not that many years ago, but then we did it for MSIE. As a 5 minute user of Firefox mobile, I can attest to this happening right now. The mobile web is at this point not even usuable on a non-webkit browser. This is bad for the web. You are doing it. Please stop doing it. The only thing good for the web is following web-standards. If you're not complying to them, you are doing something wrong, and I don't care what your reason is: You are doing something wrong.

noibl 14y ago
> For once, it seems Microsoft has a better option. Not for the first time. * { box-sizing: border-box; } is a staple of mine. > WebKit is the new IE and it's destructive for the web. Microsoft has submitted a patch to the WebKit project to extend the open source rendering engine with a prototype implementation of the Pointer Events specification that the company is also working on together with Google, Mozilla, and Opera. ... The first specification, Touch Events, has been essentially abandoned.[1] > The mobile web is at this point not even usuable on a non-webkit browser. This is bad for the web. You are doing it. Please stop doing it. There's no need to hector web developers about this. (I assume that's what you meant by 'you'.) It's mostly up to the browser makers to hash this out. Microsoft's contribution to Webkit was an exemplary and, from what I can see, much-welcomed response to Apple's patent shenanigans over Touch. Let's just give it time. It's worth bearing in mind that Android (which ships Webkit by default) is currently the only mainstream mobile OS that even allows unrestricted use of independent browser technology, which is partly why Firefox Mobile is only available for that platform. [1] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/microsoft-offers-patches-to-webkit-to-aid-touch-compatibility/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/micros...
- bsimpson 14y ago
  I forgot about that. Wonder when/if it will land in Chrome...
bsimpson 14y ago
I'm not only partial to TouchEvents because they're better supported across browsers. IE makes you handle all the pointers independently, which is great for toy demos of drawing apps, but really cumbersome for actually implementing gestures with compared to simply iterating over TouchEvent.targetTouches.