Tweak the Gestures Overlay demo. This shortens the fade duration to make it more usable and also adds a longer pause before the fade. This change also introduce a new compile-time setting to decide whether or not the overlay should steal the events from the underlying ListView. It is now off by default, per discussion with hackbod. It feel a little bit better but it may vary from user to user so studies will be necessary.

tests/sketch/src/com/android/gesture/GestureOverlay.java

@@ -41,8 +41,10 @@ public class GestureOverlay extends View {
     // TODO: Move all these values into XML attributes
     private static final int TRANSPARENT_BACKGROUND = 0x00000000;
 
-    private static final float FADING_ALPHA_CHANGE = 0.03f;
+    // TODO: SHOULD BE A TOTAL DURATION
-    private static final long FADING_REFRESHING_RATE = 100;
+    private static final float FADING_ALPHA_CHANGE = 0.15f;
+    private static final long FADING_OFFSET = 300;
+    private static final long FADING_REFRESHING_RATE = 16;
 
     private static final int GESTURE_STROKE_WIDTH = 12;
     private static final boolean GESTURE_RENDERING_ANTIALIAS = true;
@@ -235,7 +237,7 @@ public class GestureOverlay extends View {
             mFadingAlpha = 1;
             mIsFadingOut = true;
             mHandler.removeCallbacks(mFadingOut);
-            mHandler.postDelayed(mFadingOut, FADING_REFRESHING_RATE);
+            mHandler.postDelayed(mFadingOut, FADING_OFFSET);
         } else {
             mPath = null;
             mCurrentGesture = null;

tests/sketch/src/com/android/gesture/TouchThroughGesturing.java

@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ public class TouchThroughGesturing implements GestureListener {
     private static final float SQUARENESS_THRESHOLD = 0.275f;
     private static final float ANGLE_THRESHOLD = 40;
 
+    private static final boolean STEAL_EVENTS = false;
+
     public static final int DEFAULT_UNCERTAIN_GESTURE_COLOR = Color.argb(60, 255, 255, 0);
 
     private boolean mIsGesturing = false;
@@ -91,6 +93,11 @@ public class TouchThroughGesturing implements GestureListener {
     }
 
     public void onGesture(GestureOverlay overlay, MotionEvent event) {
+        //noinspection PointlessBooleanExpression
+        if (!STEAL_EVENTS) {
+            mModel.dispatchTouchEvent(event);
+        }
+
         if (mIsGesturing) {
             return;
         }
@@ -114,15 +121,19 @@ public class TouchThroughGesturing implements GestureListener {
             if (box.squareness > SQUARENESS_THRESHOLD || angle < ANGLE_THRESHOLD) {
                 mIsGesturing = true;
                 overlay.setGestureColor(GestureOverlay.DEFAULT_GESTURE_COLOR);
+                if (STEAL_EVENTS) {
                     event = MotionEvent.obtain(event.getDownTime(), System.currentTimeMillis(),
                             MotionEvent.ACTION_UP, x, y, event.getPressure(), event.getSize(),
                             event.getMetaState(), event.getXPrecision(), event.getYPrecision(),
                             event.getDeviceId(), event.getEdgeFlags());
                 }
             }
+        }
 
+        if (STEAL_EVENTS) {
             mModel.dispatchTouchEvent(event);
         }
+    }
 
     public void onFinishGesture(GestureOverlay overlay, MotionEvent event) {
         if (mIsGesturing) {

tests/sketch/src/com/android/gesture/example/ContactListGestureOverlay.java

@@ -50,8 +50,6 @@ public class ContactListGestureOverlay extends Activity {
             People.DISPLAY_NAME, // 1
     };
 
-    private GestureOverlay mOverlay;
-
     private ContactAdapter mContactAdapter;
 
     private TouchThroughGesturing mGestureProcessor;
@@ -97,7 +95,7 @@ public class ContactListGestureOverlay extends Activity {
         setProgressBarIndeterminateVisibility(false);
 
         // add a gesture overlay on top of the ListView
-        mOverlay = new GestureOverlay(this);
+        GestureOverlay overlay = new GestureOverlay(this);
         mGestureProcessor = new TouchThroughGesturing(mContactList);
         mGestureProcessor.setGestureType(TouchThroughGesturing.MULTIPLE_STROKE);
         mGestureProcessor.addGestureActionListener(new GestureActionListener() {
@@ -114,9 +112,9 @@ public class ContactListGestureOverlay extends Activity {
                 }
             }
         });
-        mOverlay.addGestureListener(mGestureProcessor);
+        overlay.addGestureListener(mGestureProcessor);
         ViewGroup.LayoutParams params = new ViewGroup.LayoutParams(
                 ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT);
-        this.addContentView(mOverlay, params);
+        this.addContentView(overlay, params);
     }
 }