.. SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 James Turner <james@flightgear.org>
.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later

Identification
==============

Config files are mapped to detected hardware devices using different
identifiers.

The simplest approach is to use the name of the device, which it
self-reports. However, for many reasons, devices can report under
several names, so typically the XML configuration needs to include them
all.

Each device also defines a unique vendor (manufacturer) identification,
and a product identification. These are short numbers which are assigned
when the hardware is being designed, and should be consistent for a
particular model.

Serial Numbers
--------------
In theory, each device should have a unique serial number, which allows
multiple copies of the same device to have different configurations.
This is important with throttle quadrants, where it's common to combine
two or more, to replicate the throttle levers on a four-engined
aircraft.

Unfortunately, most consumer-grade hardware doesn't return a valid
serial number (usually 0 or 1 is returned)