xref: /original-bsd/share/man/man4/man4.vax/tb.4 (revision c3e32dec)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1986, 1991, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
5.\"
6.\"     @(#)tb.4	8.1 (Berkeley) 06/05/93
7.\"
8.Dd
9.Dt TB 4 vax
10.Os BSD 4.3
11.Sh NAME
12.Nm tb
13.Nd line discipline for digitizing devices
14.Sh SYNOPSIS
15.Cd pseudo-device tb
16.Sh DESCRIPTION
17This line discipline provides a polled interface to many common
18digitizing devices which are connected to a host through a serial line.
19When these devices stream data at high speed, the use of the
20line discipline is critical in minimizing the number of samples
21that would otherwise be lost due to buffer exhaustion in the
22.Xr tty 4
23handler.
24.Pp
25The line discipline is enabled by a sequence:
26.Bd -literal -offset indent
27#include <sys/tablet.h>
28int ldisc = TBLDISC, fildes; ...
29ioctl(fildes, TIOCSETD, &ldisc);
30.Ed
31.Pp
32A typical application program then polls the digitizing device by
33reading a binary data structure which contains: the current X and
34Y positions (in the device coordinate space),
35up-down status of the buttons or pen stylus,
36proximity information (when available), and a count
37of the number of samples received from the input device
38since it was opened.  In addition, devices such as the
39.Tn GTCO
40append tilt and pressure information to the end of
41the aforementioned structure.  For the Polhemus 3-D digitizer
42the structure read is completely different. Refer to the
43include file for a complete description.
44.Pp
45While in tablet mode, normal teletype input and output functions take place.
46Thus, if an 8 bit output data path is desired, it is necessary
47to prepare the output line by putting it into
48.Tn RAW
49mode using
50.Xr ioctl 2 .
51This must be done
52.Em before
53changing the discipline with
54.Dv TIOCSETD ,
55as most
56.Xr ioctl 2
57calls are disabled while in tablet line-discipline mode.
58.Pp
59The line discipline supports
60.Xr ioctl 2
61requests to get/set the operating mode, and to get/set the tablet type
62and operating mode by
63.Em or Ns -ing
64the two values together.
65.Pp
66The line discipline supports digitizing devices which are
67compatible with Hitachi,
68.Tn GTCO ,
69or Polhemus protocol formats.
70For Hitachi there are several formats with that used in the
71newer model
72.Tn HDG-1111B
73the most common.
74.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
75None.
76.Sh SEE ALSO
77.Xr tty 4
78.Sh HISTORY
79The
80.Nm
81interface appeared in
82.Bx 4.3 .
83