The second version of the Remote Input Manager, introduced in mid-2002, implemented input distribution by sharing devices rather than proxies, as done in the original version [Ols92]. This refactoring has changed the class hierarchy for device drivers. Previously, classes such as gadget::Digital and gadget::Position derived from gadget::Input, and device drivers used multiple inheritance to derive from one or more of gadget::Analog, gadget::Digital, etc.

With the introduction of gadget::InputMixer<S, T>, device drivers now derive from this single template class. More information will be given in Chapter 5, Writing Device Drivers, but as an example, consider a driver for a positional device. In VR Juggler 1.0 and in early versions of Gadgeteer, such a driver class would have derived from gadget::Position. Now, it would derive from gadget::InputMixer<gadget::Input, gadget::Position>. Use of gadget::InputMixer<S, T> is required if a device is to be used with the Remote Input Manager. If the old class hierarchy is used (which is still allowed), the device cannot be shared between computers.