some other devices not detected :  "Nintendo Wii Remote IR" and "Nintendo Wii Remote Acceleromete"
because they are just axes. (i can however understand that it's not joysticks, and in my own opinion, the 3 devices should be only 1 because it's physically only 1 )

name    : "Nintendo Wii Remote IR"
   bits ev : EV_SYN EV_ABS

name    : "Nintendo Wii Remote"
   bits ev : EV_SYN EV_KEY EV_FF

name    : "Nintendo Wii Remote Acceleromete"
   bits ev : EV_SYN EV_ABS

the worst effect making this test less restrictive is to have some non joystick devices recognized as a joystick.
not really a keyboard, because a keyboard with axes could be considered as a joystick, but the question is more not detect a mouse as a joystick.
I could think this test has been added to difference a joystick and a mouse ; but in my humble opinion, the wiimote can be considered as a joystick and as mouse for the IR part at least.
At least having a hat, make your device a joystick, i think.

isn't it possible to add eventDevices including all of them and let the application choose what it needs to filter on ?
For example, for a game, i could have the need of only one axis to increase or decrease a value (speed for example).

what about an argument when initializing joysticks ?

struct joystickRequirements {
  // something which help to customize EV_IsJoystick() behavior
  // hasAxisX, hasAxisY, hasHATX, hasHATY, hasButton = true/false
  // minimum list of required button = A 1 TRIGGER
};

defaultJoystickRequirements { // default value when initializing joystick
 // something which define the default behavior
};

My two cents, with UDEV hotplugging in place, I think the IsJoystick test can be relaxed completely (if the device addition comes from UDEV).

Agreed, as long as udev actually identifies it as a joystick device. Gabriel, do you want to make that change?

Hopefully this fixes it: http://hg.libsdl.org/SDL/rev/4434ab25abf3