Auto-rotate tablets depending on orientation of mapped area
Inspired by this issue report, I think it would be nice if GNOME could auto-rotate tablets so that their orientation matches the mapped area. That is to say:
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If the tablet is mapped to an area of the desktop that is wider than it is tall, it should remain in a (left- or right-handed) landscape orientation.
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If the tablet is mapped to an area of the desktop that is taller than it is wide, it should automatically rotate the tablet into a (sensible) portrait orientation
- Tablet should be rotated into an orientation where the cable comes out of the "top" of the tablet (ideally) or out of one of the two sides (less-ideal), but never out of the "bottom" (where the cable would cause issues)
This would improve tablet usability on systems that have a monitor mapped in portrait mode. I can imagine an artist wanting to have their monitor in portrait mode while working on portrait-orientation art (to better use the available screen space), but finding this very awkward under GNOME because the only a tiny portion of the landscape tablet can be mapped into the portrait screen space.
The tablet should ideally automatically change orientation to match the mapped display rather than having it be some kind of user-preference. This would allow the tablet orientation to "always" be correct as users possibly use display toggle.
This is only a minor issue under X11 since xf86-input-wacom allows users to control device orientation through xsetwacom. It is much more annoying under Wayland where such control is not available.
Steps to Reproduce:
- Rotate a monitor in GNOME to be in portrait orientation
- Map the tablet to the portrait monitor
- Ensure the "match aspect ratio" option is checked
- Observe that only a small portion of the tablet is actually usable.
Discussion:
- Is this a feature that actual artists would find useful? (Disclaimer: I'm just a coder who can barely finger-paint, but it seems like a reasonable idea...)
- What are the usability issues associated with using a (normally landscape) tablet in portrait orientation?
- Are those issues worse than the issue of only getting to use a small portion of a landscape tablet when mapped to a portrait screen region?
- Is this something that should be enabled / disabled by preference?
- Would that preference be exposed through the control panel, or only in gsettings if we need an "escape hatch" for users who do not want the feature?
- If a preference is provided, is it just an "auto-rotate" boolean or are users just given "direct" control over the tablet orientation?