There is some useful data-mining potential from having a "send settings to $SOMEONE" button, especially if a lot of people with similar pointing habits are buying the same laptop (and even more interesting if there's a way to collect data like hand size or mobility to go with it).
For me the acceleration settings are the usual front-runner configuration problem. I need to be able to flick the pointer across the screen with a single stroke across the pad, but still have enough fine precision to hit single-pixel targets. I play a game called "bugsquish" (from a Debian archive near you) with my touchpad to make sure I have the settings right.
You may find that you need to implement the same xinput settings multiple different ways, even if you don't change hardware, because different drivers for the same hardware present different interfaces. Many devices even provide multiple register-level interfaces for compatibility with various hardware legacies. The good news is that you can drive xinput from a script so the search for a specific parameter ID can be automated once you know what it is--gone are the days of blindly plugging values into 'xset m' and hoping they're sane.
I have an HP netbook and a Macbook, which are about as different as two touchpads can be. HP divided their postage-stamp-sized pad into separate horizontal and vertical scroll areas, but it's really too small to be anything but a uniform surface with multi-finger gestures and no clicking on the touchpad (there are buttons, after all). The Macbook's huge touch surface has space to spare for separate scrolling and clicking areas, but it is normally configured as a uniform surface controlled by multi-finger gestures. I ended up configuring each one to behave like the factory defaults of the other, which terribly confuses anyone who tries to use my Macbook.
Re: The Joy of xinput
For me the acceleration settings are the usual front-runner configuration problem. I need to be able to flick the pointer across the screen with a single stroke across the pad, but still have enough fine precision to hit single-pixel targets. I play a game called "bugsquish" (from a Debian archive near you) with my touchpad to make sure I have the settings right.
You may find that you need to implement the same xinput settings multiple different ways, even if you don't change hardware, because different drivers for the same hardware present different interfaces. Many devices even provide multiple register-level interfaces for compatibility with various hardware legacies. The good news is that you can drive xinput from a script so the search for a specific parameter ID can be automated once you know what it is--gone are the days of blindly plugging values into 'xset m' and hoping they're sane.
I have an HP netbook and a Macbook, which are about as different as two touchpads can be. HP divided their postage-stamp-sized pad into separate horizontal and vertical scroll areas, but it's really too small to be anything but a uniform surface with multi-finger gestures and no clicking on the touchpad (there are buttons, after all). The Macbook's huge touch surface has space to spare for separate scrolling and clicking areas, but it is normally configured as a uniform surface controlled by multi-finger gestures. I ended up configuring each one to behave like the factory defaults of the other, which terribly confuses anyone who tries to use my Macbook.