Obsidian is utterly broken on tables when using a pen

[tftd]

Steps to reproduce

You need a tablet with an S pen. Once you install Obsidian and attempt to write with the S pen the left / right / top panels are showing for a split second due to the movement of the s pen being detected as a pull event. This causes the writing to stop and the type cursor starts moving all over the place.

Here’s a recording of the experience:

lv 0 20240723172613

Unfortunately the panels sometimes show for a split-second so they are not captured in the video, but it does show the problems that occur after those panels show.

The overall experience is pretty terrible to be honest. The pen randomly stops working in Obsidian and to make it “work” again I need to use my fingers, move the side bars and then the pen starts working again until the next time I need to do that again.

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? [Y/N]

Yes

Expected result

The S pen should work.

Actual result

Shhh starts flying around

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
	Operating system: android 14 (samsung SM-X916B)
	Obsidian version: 1.6.7 (149)
	API version: v1.6.7
	Login status: not logged in
	Live preview: on
	Base theme: adapt to system
	Community theme: none
	Snippets enabled: 0
	Restricted mode: on

RECOMMENDATIONS:
	none

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Additional information

Based on some research it looks like it’s possible to reliably detect if there is an pen being used:

Is there any way to check if device supports stylus input?

It would make sense to temporarily disable the ability to “pull out” the side panels when the s pen is being used. Or have a dedicated area from which the pen can activate the pull out. So instead of activating the pull out from anywhere on the screen there could be a “hot spot” that’s on the left/right/top with let’s say 200px offset in which the pen would activate the pull event.

I think the option with disabling the pull event is easier to implement as the user still has the left / right icons on the top that he can use to click and show those panels.

[WhiteNoise]

Hello. We don’t support S pen input. Please, open a Feature Request. Thanks

[tftd]

I wouldn’t categorize this as a feature request, but rather a bug which can be easily fixed.

There is no need for dedicated S pen, Stylus or Apple Pencil support. The above was merely a suggestion. Minor logic changes related to the side panels will resolve the problem as well. For example there could be configuration flag that can be selected by the user and when enabled – the side panels will only show when you click the respective icon(s):

The flag can be set to false as default which would preserve backwards compatibility and the current behavior.