Understanding touch events

Although similar in nature to an ordinary mouse click, a touch event allows us to interact with the computer primarily through a point and respond manner. However, touches are far more flexible than clicks and thus open up the stage for a whole new type of game.

Fundamentally, a touch is different than a click in that more than one touch is possible on the same surface, at the same time. Also, a touch is generally different than a click in that it allows for a larger target area as well as varying pressure. I say generally because not all devices detect the touch area with high precision (or with any precision at all) or touch pressure. Similarly, some mouse or other equivalent input devices actually do offer pressure sensitivity, although most browsers don't have use of such a feature, neither do they expose that data through a click event object.

Note

For compatibility purposes, most mobile browsers respond to touch events when JavaScript code expects a touch. In...