For non-latin alphabets the touchpad can be a useful area for handwriting (followed by symbol recognition). Apple has that feature in OS X [1] and there is some work ongoing in ibus to provide this too.

This would be an explicit mode switch from pointer events to sending touch events, emulating it on pointer events only (even when in absolute mode) is not sufficient - when in pointer mode the touchpad doesn't send press/release events for placing a finger on the touchpad. That's our biggest issue getting this into X.

Must not conflict with other gestures, see Bugs 85880 and 85881.


[1] http://support.apple.com/en-au/HT4288