[PATCH libinput 0/8] Add libinput_device_suspend() to disable devices

[Bill Spitzak]

On 10/06/2014 05:59 AM, Peter Hutterer wrote:

>> FORCE_ENABLED - Bypass anything that makes the device stop reporting events.
>
> why would you want that setting? if it's disabled when it shouldn't be then
> this is a bug we need to fix.

It is what you are calling "enabled".

My complaint is that the setting everybody *should* use has the 
complicated name "disabled_on_external_mouse", while the seemingly 
obvious setting of "enabled" means that user preferences are being ignored.

My proposal is to rename things like this:

1. Rename "enabled" to "force_enabled" or 
"enable_even_if_external_mouse", or *anything* that describes how it 
modifies the behavior of the driver from how the programmer of the 
driver intended.

2. Rename "disabled_on_external_mouse" to "enabled".

 > the reason we need an option like this is to handle the situations
 > that are clearly user preference and cannot be determined.

I fully understand this but the assumption that "user preferences" can 
be a single binary value stuck on the device is naive. You are going to 
need a *lot* of binary flags and numeric controls. There is no reason to 
put one of them into the disable control.