[pygame] Not all buttons are created equal...

[Terry Hancock <hancock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

I'm testing out a control module with pygame and a 
12-button, 6-axis USB PC controller that I recently
bought.  Buttons 1-5 behave as I expect them to,
but curiously, buttons 6,7, and 8 are a little wierd.

Unlike the first 5, these buttons repeatedly generate
JOYBUTTONDOWN and JOYBUTTONUP events
when held down (1-5 just generate
1 JOYBUTTONDOWN when pressed and a
JOYBUTTONUP when released -- as I expected from
the names).  This causes my test program to flash for
buttons 6-8, instead of holding steady as it does
for the first 5.

(buttons 9 & 10 appear to resume the "normal"
behavior, BTW, I haven't properly tested 11 & 12).

Is this fairly normal behavior, and if so, is it the 
controller or pygame that is responsible for the
different handling of the buttons?

I certainly can accomodate this information in my
game design, but I obviously want the game to be
usable by people with different joysticks, and I just
want to know what to plan for.

So far, I've noticed that all the USB controllers for
the PC seem to have this same layout, which is apparently
copied from the PS/2 controller. So I'm thinking it
might be safe to rely on this for the purposes of
game design. But I've only been looking
for the last couple of months, so this could just be
the current fashion, and not some long-standing
standard.

Any enlightenment or references on the above would be 
much appreciated. :-)

Cheers,
Terry

--
Terry Hancock ( hancock at anansispaceworks.com )
Anansi Spaceworks  http://www.anansispaceworks.com