Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!iuvax!cica!gatech!gtss!chas
From: chas@gtss.gatech.edu (Charles Cleveland)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Mouse buttons (and Boing! Mouse.)
Message-ID: <446@gtss.gatech.edu>
Date: 7 Jul 89 00:57:02 GMT
References: <8907031413.AA11261@jade.berkeley.edu> <1713@ucqais.uc.edu> <7593@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <7213@cbmvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: chas@gtss.gatech.edu (Charles Cleveland)
Organization: Georgia Tech School of Physics
Lines: 40

In article <7213@cbmvax.UUCP> unland@cbmvax.UUCP (Rick Unland - Regional Support) writes:
)
)Fantastic, incredible, smooth, accurate, well made, and it handles like a
)
)              ....  Teh one thing that some people find is that the first time
)they go to an opticle mouse is that it has to be kept perpendicular to the pad
)at all times or the results will be disconcerting.

This is a misperception based on your previous experience (probably exclusive)
with balled mice.  While I have not used the Boing! mouse itself, my
understanding is that it is a Mouse Systems mouse or equivalent, like the one
on my Sun and like the one I bought for my wife's PC (and which would work on
my Amiga very well will a cable converter I think) after she had to have one
and dispaired of ever mastering one with balls (she says she has no eye-hand
coordination, but hey, I've got no complaints).

With an optical mouse, the pad determines what is right and left, and what is
up and down.  It doesn't matter how you hold the mouse or whether it lines up
with the orientation of the pad at all.  If you move the mouse to the right on
the pad, the cursor moves to the right.  Etc.  Many people like this.

With a balled mouse, the cursor moves to the right if you move the mouse to
the right with respect to its current orientation, which could be in an
arbitrary orientation with respect to an external reference frame, such as
my wife's idea of what is right and left, as opposed to up and down, on the
desk top.  Etc.  Many people like this.

An optical mouse does not have to be kept perpendicular to the pad.  But to
move to the right you must move the mouse to the right (as a whole, rotations
don't count) with respect to the pad.

Is this quite clear now?  Or shall I go on.

I thought not.

--
"Our vision is to speed up time, eventually eliminating it." -- Alex Schure

Charles Cleveland   Georgia Tech School of Physics   Atlanta, GA 30332-0430
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