Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!uvaarpa!mcnc!rti!bcw
From: bcw@rti.UUCP (Bruce Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Track-ball Keyboards
Summary: Keyboards with trackballs
Keywords: Keyboards, mouse, mice, trackball
Message-ID: <3305@rti.UUCP>
Date: 2 Dec 89 18:00:09 GMT
References: <2279@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> <6436@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> <1989Dec2.033745.11699@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, RTP, NC
Lines: 26

In article <1989Dec2.033745.11699@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, mjw06513@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mary J Winters) writes:
> I admit to some temptation regarding the new trackball keyboards. I'm one
> of those people who NEVER has enough space on their desk for their mouse.
> Has anyone tried one of the keyboards with built-in trackball, and if so
> would you mind posting/emailing a brief review? I'd be especially interested
> in the layout and feel of the keyboard portion (assuming the trackball part
> is compatible with the Microsoft Mouse).

The only keyboard I've tried with a trackball was the Keycat - I haven't
tried the Logitech.

The trackball is pretty nice, easy to use and so forth, but they stuck some
of the function keys (I can't remember which ones now, I think the arrow
keys) ABOVE the trackball!!  The trackball is so large (about the size of
a pool cue ball) that you have to reach OVER the trackball to get to the
arrow keys.  I found this extremely distracting, though it may have been
made worse because I am a touch typist.  It seemed to me that with such a
large trackball you should put the arrow keys BELOW the trackball (towards
the edge of the table) since you're not going to have any trouble reaching
such a large trackball anyway.

All the other trackballs I've seen are on separate boxes.  It seems like
this ought to be a good idea but I've never seen it brought off in what I
thought was a completely successful implementation.

						Bruce C. Wright