# Touch Mental Model

Status: pedagogical
Companion spec: [`../specs/07-touch-peripheral.md`](../specs/07-touch-peripheral.md)

PROMETEU uses TOUCH as an absolute, deterministic pointer, not as a gesture-rich surface.

## Design Intuition

The central principle is simple:

- a single active pointer;
- no implicit gestures;
- no acceleration;
- no heuristics;
- the same behavior on desktop, mobile, and dedicated hardware.

If a behavior cannot be guaranteed portably, it does not enter the machine.

## Why Single Pointer

Physical multitouch may exist on the host, but the machine chooses a single logical pointer to avoid:

- capture ambiguities;
- differences between platforms;
- semantic shifts between mouse, real touch, and built-in touchscreen.

## Good Uses

TOUCH works well for:

- UI;
- direct selection;
- drag-and-drop;
- pointing puzzles;
- trails, cuts, and contact-based mechanics.

## What Games Must Do Themselves

If a game wants gestures, swipe, long-press, or smoothing, it must build that on top of the raw per-frame state. The peripheral does not interpret intent.