Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!jm7e+ From: jm7e+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jeremy G. Mereness) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Mac OS 7.0 to use point-and-click Message-ID: Date: 8 Jun 90 17:26:54 GMT References: <5635@helios.TAMU.EDU> <13954@csli.Stanford.EDU>, <9546@pt.cs.cmu.edu> Organization: Computing Systems, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 61 In-Reply-To: <9546@pt.cs.cmu.edu> Eric.Thayer@cs.cmu.edu (Eric H. Thayer) writes: > In article <13954@csli.Stanford.EDU> dayglow@csli.Stanford.EDU (Eric T. > Ly) writes: > > It's one of those religious issues, I believe, so NeXT may want to let > > the user decide via a preference panel or something. > > Given the way that the NeXT is designed with respect to menus, it would be > difficult to just allow focus on cursor as a preference. Think of a screen > setup where there is no background path from where your cursor is to where > the application's menu is. This means that you would have to potentially > cross windows from other applications. As you do, you focus in turn on > each window along your cursor path. By the time your cursor gets to the > menu area, the menu you are interested in is long gone. This is a good point, but it could be done. The scheme on X is simply to direct keyboard input. Therefore, I can see a NeXT environment which would place keyboard input in whatever window the mouse was placed, but a button-press would change the menus in the corner and bring the window to the front. Why do I like this? Because I start a job in one window, hit the mouse with my knuckle to another window, and perform something else while I wait. And if something in a Terminal running telnet to another machine catches my eye, I can zip to it, take care of it, and return without breaking my chain of thought. It's not worth it to have to click there and wait for the WndwMgr to bring the window to the front and redraw the corner menus, all so that I can send two keystrokes to a remote host... The only reason I don't mind the Mac interface is because I have never had to use a mac for very long whose screen was big enough for several whole windows to appear at once. There, it makes sense for a keyclick to be required, because you can't see the damned thing if it is behind the front window. But try a mac with Multifinder and a workstation-size screen. It's Drudgery, and your arm starts to hurt. Further, ever notice what happens on NeXT when you quit an application? No focus! I quit something, start typing, but nothing appears because NeXT doesn't know where to go. If focus followed the mouse, keyboard input would be directed to the right place while the other application quietly quit. There's no reason one has to watch it go. There is other focus weirdness concerning child-parent and transient windows (like the find window from the Digital Library) that I hope NeXT fixes in the next release. Really, once you get used to a focus-follow-mouse environment, you find yourself making use of much more of your screen at once. Of course, even in X you are allowed a choice, and I think that if there is one thing that NeXT should not copy from Apple, that is a hard-coded interface; allow people to suit the interface to their needs. I still remember Jobs introducing the first Macs in 1984 with no arrow keys on the keyboard because he wanted to "force" people to use mice for cursor movement. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |Jeremy Mereness | Support | Ye Olde Disclaimer: | |jm7e+@andrew.cmu.edu (internet) | Free | The above represent my| |a700jm7e@cmccvb (Vax... bitnet) | Software | opinions, alone. | |staff/student@Carnegie Mellon U. | | Ya Gotta Love It. | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------