app_input is a cross-platform library for receiving keyboard and mouse events.

Design principles

• Use the best modern backend on each platform
• Zero magic, this library can be easily used without interference alongside any other native code.
  • When native code may interfere, instead this library will be a no-op by default. You must call into it from your eventloop before our events are delivered.
• Mouse events:
  • Mouse position is determined by the compositor. Platform-specific acceleration will be applied.
    • This is appropriate for GUI apps and topdown strategy games, or anytime you have a system-drawn cursor. It is appropriate for some fullscreen games. It is not appropriate for Counter Strike.
  • Coordinates are translated into a platform-independent upper-left coordinate system that works everywhere
  • Mouse events may require the window to be 'active' to be delivered, per platform conventions
• Keyboard events:
  • Report raw up/down events whenever possible
    • We map hardware keys rather than unicode characters
    • If you are trying to implement text input, you have much work to do, including but not limited to the shift key
  • Keycodes are translated into a platform-independent enum that works everywhere
  • On Linux, key events are broadcasted over ATSPI. Due to some questionable decisions in the Linux ecosystem this is required for screenreaders to work but nobody does it. We do!

Supported platforms

• *: Needs platform-native event integration before events are delivered. Consider using app_window!