[Bug 171295] Allow shortcuts for input devices other than the keyboard (mouse, lirc, bluetooth, joystick, etc)

[Todd]

http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=171295





--- Comment #1 from Todd <toddrme2 gmail com>  2008-10-02 07:15:32 ---
As an extension of this idea, I think it would be great of the shortcut system
used a extendable backend-based system.  This would be similar to, say, solid
or phonon where anyone can write their own backends for the shortcut system to
extend the sort of hardware or software that can provide shortcuts.

An example would be a mouse gesture backend.  Instead of having to make their
own interface to KDE they can make a backend that would allow the mouse gesture
to be used directly in the shortcut system.  The backend would interpet the
mouse gesture and translated each mouse gesture into a unique signal or
identifier of some sort that the shorcut system can interpret.  There would
still need to be a configuration dialog to learn mouse gesture and give each
one a unique identifier, but the developer would not have to code their own
interface for every KDE programs he or she wants to be able to interact with
nor would he or she need to use any ugly hacks like converting the gesture to
keyboard shortcuts and then assigning those keyboard shortcuts to the KDE
shortcut system.  The programmer would only need a way to translate each
specific mouse gesture into something unique to that gesture that could be used
to identify it in the shortcut system.  Then the user could assign the gesture
to any shortcut he or she might want.

Similarly if someone made a voice-control system for kde it could be
implemented as a backend, and the voice control system would convert each voice
command into a unique identifier that could be used by the shortcut system. 
Once again the programmer would only need a way to uniquely identify each voice
command, the shortcut system would do all the work of listening for the
identifiers and acting on them when they are present.

Other possible backends include remote control over a network, unusual devices
like the wii remote or custom serial port controllers, and even interfaces that
haven't been thought up yet.  And it wouldn't have to be a hardware interface,
programs could be used to provide the signals for the shortcut system.  So,
although this is often a roundabout way of doing it, you could have a timer
backend that sends a particular identifier at a preset time.  You could use
this to stop a media player at a particular time of day, or to automatically
lock your computer when the building closes.  You could also have a powerdevil
interface that triggers identifiers based on certain events like a laptop lid
closing.  Once again, this is probably not the most efficient way to go about
this but it is an example of the sorts of things you can do with this sort of
system.


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