Get mouse deltas using Python! (in Linux)

The data from the input system comes out as structures, not simple integers. The mice device is deprecated, I believe. The preferred method is the event device interfaces, where the mouse (and other) input events can also be obtained. I wrote some code that does this, the Event.py module You can use that, or start from there.

I'm on a basic device and not having access to X or ... so event.py doesn't works.

So here's my simpler decode code part to interpret from "deprecated" '/dev/input/mice':

import struct

file = open( "/dev/input/mice", "rb" );

def getMouseEvent():
  buf = file.read(3);
  button = ord( buf[0] );
  bLeft = button & 0x1;
  bMiddle = ( button & 0x4 ) > 0;
  bRight = ( button & 0x2 ) > 0;
  x,y = struct.unpack( "bb", buf[1:] );
  print ("L:%d, M: %d, R: %d, x: %d, y: %d\n" % (bLeft,bMiddle,bRight, x, y) );
  # return stuffs

while( 1 ):
  getMouseEvent();
file.close();