[webkit-dev] pointer events specification - first editors draft

[Rick Byers]

Hi,
The W3C pointer events working group [1] has put out their first
editors draft of the Pointer Events specification [2].  Pointer events
offer a number of advantages over the current mouse event + touch
event model in WebKit.  In particular, having apps state clearly and
declaratively [3] whether a touch that starts on an element should
result in browser behavior like scrolling or events which can be
handled from JavaScript is potentially a big win for touch scrolling
performance (something we struggle with in Chrome).  Also, with the
increasing sales of windows touch screen devices and adoption of IE10,
touch input compatibility with IE seems like a valuable goal.

If anyone here is interested in providing feedback on the pointer
events design, I'd encourage you to join the working group (or at
least post your comments to public-pointer-events [4]).  The most
significant missing piece from the specification is a description of
interoperability with touch events (similar to the section on mouse
events [5]), but I'm optimistic there will be something reasonable
here soon (Mozilla and Opera are both involved and so care about this
issue too).

Outside of the design details, are there any thoughts or concerns
about WebKit getting an implementation of pointer events at some
point?

Thanks,
   Rick

[1] http://www.w3.org/2012/pointerevents/
[2] http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/pointerevents/raw-file/tip/pointerEvents.html
[3] http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/pointerevents/raw-file/tip/pointerEvents.html#the-touch-action-css-property
[4] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-pointer-events/
[5] http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/pointerevents/raw-file/tip/pointerEvents.html#compatibility-mapping-with-mouse-events