From: Erik Veenstra <pan@...>
Date: 2005-07-30T20:11:02+09:00
Subject: Re: Simulating Mouse Dragging

> > > > Is it possible to simulate a mouse drag event in a
> > > > browser (or any program in general) with Ruby?
> > > > Something like:
> > >
> > > Could recording + analyzing mouse data help? Then you can
> > > simulate it and let X11 consume it. `gpm -R` may help.
> >
> > "Recording" the mouse data by reading /dev/gpmdata actually
> > works. Good start. Generating such a data stream is
> > possible. But what do we have to do to let X11 "consume"
> > that stream? "cat test /dev/gpmdata" doesn't work...
>
> disclaimer: I have never tried anything like this myself.
>
> In what sense does it not work? (assuming you made X11 read
> /dev/gpmdata one way or the other). I would guess that `cat
> test` is "too fast".

I experimented a bit, yesterday night. I didn't configure X11
to read from /dev/gpmdata. But I found that one. After that,
writing to /dev/gpmdata with a properly (?) filled memory
structure, actually did move the mouse. Clicking was possible,
too. But dragging somehow still doesn't work.

The protocol is IMPS/2.

I attached my experiment.

Somebody able and willing to help?

gegroet,
Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/

----------------------------------------------------------------

 # http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/gassend/protocols/intellimouse/
 # http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/input/mcompat.mspx

 class Mouse
   Yov   = 0x80
   Xov   = 0x40
   Y8    = 0x20
   X8    = 0x10
   BIT4  = 0x08
   MB    = 0x04
   RB    = 0x02
   LB    = 0x01

   def initialize
     @handle             = File.new("/dev/gpmdata", "wb")
     @handle.sync        = true
     @button             = 0
   end

   def move(dx, dy)
     @bytes      = []

     byte1       = (BIT4 | @button)
     byte2       = (dx.to_i)
     byte3       = (dy.to_i)
     byte4       = 0

     if dx < 0
       byte1 |= X8
       byte2 += 256
     end

     if dy < 0
       byte1 |= Y8
       byte3 += 256
     end

     @bytes << byte1
     @bytes << byte2
     @bytes << byte3
     @bytes << byte4

     send
   end

   def down(button)
     @button     = button
     move(0, 0)
   end

   def up
     @button     = 0
     move(0, 0)
   end

   def drag(dx, dy, button)
     down(button)
     move(dx, dy)
     up
   end

   def click(button)
     down(button)
     up
   end

   def stream
     @bytes.pack("c%d" % @bytes.length)
   end

   def inspect
     @bytes.collect{|s| s.chr}.join("").unpack("H2"*@bytes.length)
   end

   def send
     p inspect
     @handle << stream
   end
 end

 #system "sudo /etc/init.d/gpm stop" or puts "Oops"

 mouse   = Mouse.new

 mouse.drag(-100, 0, Mouse::LB)
 mouse.move(+100, 0)

 #system "sudo /etc/init.d/gpm start" or puts "Oops"

----------------------------------------------------------------