Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!svin02!rcpieter From: rcpieter@svin02.info.win.tue.nl (Tiggr) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: The Mouse -- What is its History? Message-ID: <1478@svin02.info.win.tue.nl> Date: 13 Oct 90 22:35:59 GMT References: <21056@dime.cs.umass.edu> <1123@helens.Stanford.EDU> Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands Lines: 23 In all articles in this thread only two existing ways of using a mouse have been discussed (Mac and Xerox) . Since you all are probably americans, living in the USA, this is quite normal (surely nobody wants to discuss what Windows 3 or the X Windowing System do to their mouse (mice?)). On this side of the ocean however, another GUI exists on the Acorn Archimedes which incorporates a three button mouse. For right hand users, the buttons are called (from left to right) SELECT, MENU and ADJUST. The SELECT button does the obvious (same as the MacMouse button), MENU opens a menu at the current mouse location (the menu is of course context sensitive), and ADJUST adjusts the current selection, just like SHIFT-SELECT does (like it also does on the Mac). Since the OS is multi tasking, the fact that there is a MENU button is *very* nice (do I hate the way the menu bar flashes and changes when using multifinder). So, I don't understand what all this talk like `I don't want more buttons' is about. A three button mouse could be put on the Mac without any problem, and without changing the user interface at all. Tiggr -- Watch this space.