Gamepad API button and axis events

Request for Mozilla Position on an Emerging Web Specification

• Specification Title: Gamepad API button and axis events
• Specification or proposal URL: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1At2ZsMOow4LmIhLs_LfnUV8J9glJS8qSyW-PqYtrQVA
• Bugzilla URL: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=857092
• Mozillians who can provide input: ted@mielczarek.org (spec author, no longer at Mozilla)

Other information

An implementation of these events was added when the API was first developed. However, the events were never added to the official spec so they are currently only enabled with a flag (dom.gamepad.non_standard_events.enabled).

The proposed spec changes differ in some ways from the Firefox implementation:

• gamepadbuttondown, gamepadbuttonup, gamepadaxismove are renamed to buttondown, buttonup, axischange.
• A buttonchange event is added that fires when a button value changes.
• The new events are specified to fire on the Gamepad object instead of the Window object.

Chrome's implementation status is available here: https://chromestatus.com/feature/5989275208253440

Firefox is currently listed as "Positive" based on tmielczarek@'s comment on the 2015 public-webapps thread which predates this proposal, I'll update the link to the official position once it's published.

Start by reading the linked Gamepad API proposal and the related Bugzilla report, then compare the proposed event names, targets, and behavior with Firefox's flag-gated implementation. Done means establishing and recording Mozilla's official position on the specification changes; the issue does not name repository files or tests.