Add methods to retrieve names of entities in yarp::dev::IJoypadController interfaces?

[traversaro]

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Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. At the moment, the yarp::dev::IJoypadController identifies joypad entities such as Axis, Button, Trackball, etc, etc only with numerical IDs. This mimicks the SDL2 APIs that I guess was the original inspiration for yarp::dev::IJoypadController. However, with @S-Dafarra we are starting to investigate how to expose via the yarp::dev::IJoypadController interface and the related devices joypads that can be accessed via the OpenXR API.

OpenXR supports the identification of joypad entities via strings, see (https://www.khronos.org/registry/OpenXR/specs/1.0/html/xrspec.html#semantic-path and https://www.khronos.org/registry/OpenXR/specs/1.0/html/xrspec.html#semantic-path-interaction-profiles).

For this reason, it would be convenient to have some methods to expose this information that OpenXR exposes.

Describe the solution you'd like A possible solution is to add the following methods to yarp::dev::IJoypadController

virtual bool 	getAxisName(unsigned int axis_id,  std::string &name);
virtual bool 	getButtonName(unsigned int button_id,  std::string &name);
virtual bool 	getTrackballName(unsigned int trackball_id,  std::string &name);
virtual bool 	getHatName(unsigned int hat_id,  std::string &name);
virtual bool 	getTouchSurfaceName(unsigned int touch_id, std::string &name);
virtual bool 	getStickName(unsigned int stick_it, std::string &name);

with default implementations that return false. At the JoypadControlServer/JoypadControlClient level, this info can be exposed via RPC port.

Describe alternatives you've considered Possible alternatives are:

• Add those methods without default implementation, breaking compatibility with devices not in YARP that inherit from yarp::dev::IJoypadController .
• Create a yarp::dev::IJoypadController2` interface with these additional methods.

[drdanz]

I don't know if this makes sense, but since not all controllers have these information, another option, instead of adding it to the IJoypadController interface, could be to add a new IJoypadControllerInfo interface.

(P.S. getStickCount above, should probably be getStickName)

[traversaro]

I don't know if this makes sense, but since not all controllers have these information, another option, instead of adding it to the IJoypadController interface, could be to add a new IJoypadControllerInfo interface.

Good point, but I guess it could still make sense to reuse the existing JoypadControlServer/JoypadControlClient devices, right?

(P.S. getStickCount above, should probably be getStickName)

Thanks, fixed!

[drdanz]

Good point, but I guess it could still make sense to reuse the existing JoypadControlServer/JoypadControlClient devices, right?

Yes, these devices should be updated to support the new interface...