Multi touch support?

[Skaven252]

Now... this is probably a pretty marginal group of users, but I'm soon getting myself one of them Asus T91 netbooks and started thinking. Windows 7 natively supports multi-touch, and there are several desktop touchscreen PCs already in the market as well. I thought it could be fun if Xara could make use of it.

Examples:

• Touch the page with two fingers to zoom and scroll the view (maybe even rotate it? Though Xara doesn't currently support page rotation)
• Touch an object at two points to scale and rotate it. Touch it once to reveal the handles, then touch two corner handles for non-uniform stretch.
• Touch two objects to drag them simultaneously
• Touch and drag to make a rectangular selection, then, while holding down the rectangle, use another finger to select/unselect individual objects to refine the selection (ie no need to press shift)

Well... these may or may not work, since multi-touching doesn't recognize left click from right click and you do need to get your fingers on the keyboard every once in a while, but... it's fun to think about.

[steve.ledger]

Why not use a graphics tablet?

[Skaven252]

You mean something like Wacom Cintiq? Sure, but they are not multi-touch. Multi-touch support brings some interesting possibilities to user interface design.

Just cherishing the thought. It's not like it would be useful for any serious pro illustration.

[Soquili]

I have not used any of the new touchscreens but a friend bought one last year. He no longer has it because the touch sensors stopped working after about 6 months.