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From: philip@Kermit.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Help! Anyone know how to force the mouse to a location?
Message-ID: <1990Jun5.205342.21561@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 5 Jun 90 20:53:42 GMT
References: <30981@ut-emx.UUCP> <1990Jun5.091419.14219@portia.Stanford.EDU> <16995@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
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Reply-To: philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
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Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Lines: 35

In article <30981@ut-emx.UUCP>, rdd@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Robert Dorsett) writes:
> In article <16995@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) writes:
> >Tell me what, exactly, this `good purpose' is that you've thought up,
> >and I and millions of other Netters will help you come up with a more
> >proper way of doing it.
> 
> Games.  It's often desirable to hide the pointer while the user goes into
> another input mode (e.g., Flight Simulator).  It is only reasonable to have
> the cursor appear at the last position it disappeared in (particularly on
> a large screen).  The current hidecursor and showcursor routines do not do 
> this; thus, we must.  Being able to set the mouse *value* can also serve to 
> simplify data-gathering, should the mouse be used as a *control*.
> 
> "Let the user look for it" is not friendly OR reasonable.  In my game, for
> instance, there's a complex, dense data entry display: the mouse can EASILY 
> get lost.  The user will normally want to "disappear" the mouse at a certain 
> point, and have it reappear at the same point.  The lack of an ability to do 
> this can really affect the utility of the game.
It sounds to me as if you are really arguing that there are times when you'd
rather not have a Mac-style mouse. Rather than setting the mouse position,
maybe the "logical" thing would be to temporarily metamorphose the mouse into
some other device (e.g., a virtual joystick) and then recover the mouse
afterwards. This could be a fun project for someone to tackle in their spare
time.

The reason I would prefer it if Apple _didn't_ introduce an
easy way of setting the mouse position is the standard Mac interface is
based around a model of mouse only goes where you put it. Other interfaces
I've used aren't. You can get used to either, but to have both in one
environment would be totally confusing (if it's easy to do, people will do
it).

Philip Machanick
philip@pescadero.stanford.edu