Towards Interoperable Pointer Events: Evolving Input Events for Multiple Devices
Today, the W3C has accepted and published Microsoft’s member submission describing a new way for Web sites to support multiple pointing devices such as mouse, pen, and multi-touch. Our proposal for a new Pointer Events Web standard is based on the APIs available today in IE10 on Windows 8.
The Web is more exciting and interactive for users when sites enable experiences for multi-touch. It is even better when the same site continues to work if you switch to using a mouse or pen. We believe the Web should not be fragmented into sites designed for only one type of input. We designed Pointer Events to make it easier for developers to avoid this fragmentation by abstracting the differences of input devices while still allowing for device-specific enhancements when desired.
Our goal with this submission is to work with other browser vendors and the wider Web community to move to adopt a new approach to multi-touch input. In the future, we hope that Web developers will only need to write to one pointer input model no matter if their users are using mouse, pen, touch, or whatever comes next. The W3C noted, “This Submission comes at a time of significant developer concern about creating content that works well on multiple input modalities, and in light of some disadvantages to the touch event model currently under standardization.”
Other approaches to supporting multi-touch input require Web developers to write their code once for mouse input and again for touch, dealing with the sometimes complex interactions between the two models (for example, when touch events are mapped to mouse events for compatibility). Throughout the development of IE10, and thanks to your feedback, we designed the Pointer Events model to be more compatible with the existing Web and avoid these complexities.
We encourage you to review the proposal and share your thoughts. The specification is a starting point and calls out several open issues for discussion and we look forward to making improvements based on your feedback.
Update: On November 9th, 2012, the W3C announced the launch of the Pointer Events Working Group. The group intends to use Microsoft's proposal, based on the APIs available today in IE10 on Windows 8, as the starting point for a Recommendation track specification, an important step towards interoperable support on the Web.
—Adrian Bateman and Jacob Rossi, Program Managers, Internet Explorer
Comments
Anonymous
September 24, 2012
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September 24, 2012
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September 24, 2012
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September 24, 2012
@Gordon QUOTE: ...there are exactly ZERO ACTUAL USERS that want Microsoft... Please speak for yourself or for those that have authorized you to do so! I, for one, have not! So your quoted statement is false. I am very happy with it, and the less sites that are on this list the better! HarryAnonymous
September 24, 2012
@Gordon: From my point of view Harry Richter hit the nail with the sentences "So your quoted statement is false. I am very happy with it, and the less sites that are on this list the better!"Anonymous
September 24, 2012
We don't need another standard for input devices. The events that are currently available is more than enough, literally! THere are loads and loads of events for the mouse, keyboard and touchscreens. For a stylus, it's easy to imagine it should works exactly as touch, because that's what it is. All that it needs is an additional parameter in the event data for pressure and rotation.Anonymous
September 24, 2012
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September 24, 2012
I don’t like IE and I use Chrome, but multiple pointers is a step in the right direction, thank youAnonymous
September 25, 2012
I actually think that Microsoft's proposed events look to be superior to the touch events currently in the wild (I don't know, I don't have any device that can run IE10, let alone one with a touch screen -- though I do have an interest in the Surface Pro when it comes out). That being said, the fact that IE10 won't include support for touch events and instead require their own events is very disappointing. There are many sites that I imagine will not completely function in IE10 because of this. Of course, this is probably Microsoft avoiding a potential patent issue with the sue-happy Apple, so I do not fault Microsoft for this. They're doing what they need to do.Anonymous
September 25, 2012
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September 25, 2012
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September 26, 2012
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September 26, 2012
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September 27, 2012
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September 27, 2012
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September 27, 2012
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September 27, 2012
I was excited thinking this was about the CSS property pointer-events. Is that CSS property supported in IE10? I'm on Windows 7 so can't test it.Anonymous
September 27, 2012
@G Houston, at W3C, this issue went under debate due to click-hijacking (lists.w3.org/.../0176.html). Rule of thumb: as soon as W3C publish the candidate recommendation, IE team will implement it & there's always a lesson in haste makes waste (blogs.msdn.com/.../unprefixed-css3-gradients-in-ie10.aspx). Besides, Mozilla said it all (developer.mozilla.org/.../pointer-events) "Warning: The use of pointer-events in CSS for non-SVG elements is experimental. The feature used to be part of the CSS3 UI draft specification but, due to many open issues, has been postponed to CSS4." Since SVG 1.1 specifications reached candidate recommendation last year, the "pointer-events CSS property for SVG" was implemented in IE9 last year. msdn.microsoft.com/.../ff972269(v=vs.85).aspxAnonymous
September 27, 2012
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September 27, 2012
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September 28, 2012
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September 28, 2012
@Greg Youtube also supports HTML5, but thats not really the point of my comment anyway. My point was that he claimed youtube support didn't matter.Anonymous
September 28, 2012
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September 28, 2012
Please use beginning a browser and OS and develop a cheap product. Would changing a design at every upgrade stop? Thank you for your consideration.Anonymous
September 28, 2012
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September 28, 2012
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September 29, 2012
@radojko - Since IE is the only browser that implementate standards as they are finished (of parts of standards), IE is now the only browser that support HTML5/CSS3/etc. as it needs to be. I can give you a lot of things in Chrome/Firefox/Opera etc. that aren't standard-confirm.Anonymous
September 30, 2012
I will write here instead of building windows 8 blog. Would you correct Kernel Power 41 of Windows 7, although sale of Windows 8 is also good? For the moment, although there is no one, please reput the big fault into practice not to ship with such bugs left. Thank you for your consideration.Anonymous
September 30, 2012
Is IE going to add CSS outline-offset support to IE 10? Would be nice, all other browsers support it.Anonymous
October 01, 2012
I guess IE10 will be so complicated to use.Anonymous
October 01, 2012
IE7 and IE8 hardly correspond to HTML5 or CSS3. Since IE9 is insufficient, there is a wish. Please take out these versions and the version (7.1, 8.1, 9.1) corresponding to many of HTML5 or CSS3. Please also tell this feedback to each corporation of Microsoft.Anonymous
October 01, 2012
@Feedback, there are two kinds of feedback. One of which doesn't make any sense. Do you often make no sense? Or your way of trolling is that bogus? @Caveman, in this age and era, using a browser is the first thing kids learn in computer class. All you have to do is to enter a URL and hit enter. It works for all browsers. If that is complicated to you, go back to your google-cave.Anonymous
October 01, 2012
majd jaberAnonymous
October 02, 2012
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October 02, 2012
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October 02, 2012
Microsoft really needs to get on these issues! Developers are far from happy with Microsoft right now and they can't afford to lose more developers to other tools and platforms. Microsofts advantage has always been developer tools and support - but they are Failing Pretty Hard at that right now.Anonymous
October 02, 2012
Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Reviews Windows 8: Elegant, Innovative And Puzzling techcrunch.com/.../microsoft-co-founder-paul-allen-reviews-windows-8-elegant-innovative-and-puzzling
Here are a few additional things Allen finds puzzling about Windows 8: *Difficulties with multiple monitors (including the inability to persistently display the Start screen on one screen) *Silo effect between Desktop and Windows 8 style *Inadvertently switching modes *Inability to build hierarchies on the Start screen *Difficult to scroll in Desktop view on a tablet *No clock on the Start screen *On-screen keyboard doesn’t appear automatically in Desktop view
Anonymous
October 02, 2012
It is a continuation a while ago. Probably, it was highly complete when readjusting to a slight degree. No. 1 thinks that it is revival of a start button rather than anything. If a start button was not abolished, it did not become disrepute so far. Since I hope to guess only only once again if you please, it is very well. Probably, the rest is correction of a fine bug. Would you make it put on the market again, after returning a start button and a start menu for the time being?Anonymous
October 02, 2012
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October 02, 2012
There is a wish. Please do not change a user interface for every upgrade. The direction where especially Windows is troubled very much since specification is changed each time comes out. Would you make it change not each time but alternately? Let's make it not forget for old persons and an enterprise user to use the product of Microsoft, such as Windows.Anonymous
October 03, 2012
Please release the IE10 for Windows 7 this month. It is too long after unifying to Win 8 by the end of last year. Although IE9 is satisfactory tolerably, the direction of IE10 is just going to carry out honest expectation of it.Anonymous
October 04, 2012
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October 07, 2012
can you just stop shipping obsolete browsers ? IE10 is already another failed version with HTML5 support behind chrome and firefox.