Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!udel!princeton!phoenix!bskendig
From: bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Mac OS 7.0 to use point-and-click
Message-ID: <17025@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 6 Jun 90 03:55:03 GMT
References: <5635@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Reply-To: bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig)
Organization: Starfleet Academy: Princeton University  PQC PTC CIT EECS SCI
Lines: 43

In article <5635@helios.TAMU.EDU> daugher@cs.tamu.edu (Dr. Walter C. Daugherity) writes:
>When NeXT first came out with point-and-click to focus (i.e., to make a
>window come to the front and become the key window requires you to move the
>cursor onto the window and press the mouse button), there was a lot of 
>screaming and gnashing of teeth from Sun and Mac users, who were used to
>just pointing at a window and banging on the keys.

Huh?

The Mac uses the click-a-window-to-activate-it method.  Suns don't,
unfortunately, and neither do Iris workstations.

I don't like having to point to a window when I want to type in it.
Especially at times when there's one small window on the screen, and I
type gobs of stuff (yes, I have to look at the keyboard when I type...
:-P ) only to look up and find that the mouse was really pointing to
some other random part of the screen, and all my typing was for
naught.  "There's only one friggin' window up there!  Why do I have to
point to it?"

However, I like the fact that, on the NeXT, a window doesn't
necessarily have to be in the front and completely visible to type in
it.  (If another application comes up and blocks your view with its
window, your typing is unaffected.)  I wish that the NeXT and/or the
Mac would allow you to select a window a few layers down without
having to bring it to the front.  Nonintuitive, possibly, but useful.

>Now Apple has announced that version 7.0 of the Mac operating system, due
>out later this year, will switch to point-and-click to focus.
     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

And I could sell you some real estate in Florida...  ;-)

>So Steve is still helping design Apples! :-)

Just wait 'till IBM gets in on the game with their Mach clones.

     << Brian >>
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