Information on developing WPF touch-screen application for Windows XP

Question

I am currently working on the WPF project which involves creating a touch-screen application for Windows XP embedded. And as Windows XP wasn't built for touch interaction, there are some problems and issues with developing those applications.

An example would be a click: On windows XP click is mouse down and mouse up event, however if you use your finger instead of the mouse, you might get a drag motion instead of the click, as when you press mouse down you finger might slightly move to the side from the initial position and you will get a drag instead of click. This is just a single example of the problems you get when developing an touch-screen app for Windows XP.

If someone has been working on the WPF touch-screen application for Windows XP, could you share some knowledge and point out the pitfalls you have encountered or if you know of any resources on this topic, could you please share it.

Answer 1

I would agree with @bflosabre91. With a mouse you could have the same problems and in fact happens quite frequently when someone is learning to use a mouse. I think this problem is more relevant at the hardware level and how the touchscreen actually interprets what the user is doing.

On the software side, you COULD add some logic something along the lines of:

1. On mouse down: record coordinates and maybe the control (button, etc.) that is under the pointer
2. On mouse up: compare recorded coordinates with current coordinates. If it's within x pixels, either do a "control.click" or move the mouse to the old coordinates and tell tell the mouse to click.

The hardware may already be doing something like this...

Answer 2

i have a WPF touch screen application and it is running on kiosks with XP(although its not XP embedded like you said). I haven't had any issue with any type of click event or anything like that. I programmed it using all the normal mouse click events so it technically does work with a mouse or with the touch screen. As long as you build the controls to be large enough to account for the fact a finger will be touching it instead of a mouse pointer, I did not come across any issues.