Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!emory!utkcs2!ornl.gov!wnn
From: wnn@ornl.gov (Wolfgang N. Naegeli)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Three Button Mouse and Mac System Interface
Message-ID: <1990Oct19.213625.27898@cs.utk.edu>
Date: 19 Oct 90 21:36:25 GMT
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Organization: Univ. of Tennessee/Oak Ridge National Lab.
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References:<21056@dime.cs.umass.edu> <1123@helens.Stanford.EDU> <9028@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> <1990Oct11.174840.21598@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <9038@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> <1990Oct15.031331.25456@portia.Stanford.EDU>

I fully support what Kevin has said about three-button mice, and I hope that Apple is listening.

User-friendliness means at least two things:
(1) Ease of learning and use for a novice, and
(2) Convenience and efficiency for the expert.

The Mac's present interface shines in the first instance, but it really 
doesn't offer very much for the power user. These two aspects of user-friendliness do not exclude each other, if they are well coordinated and thought through, as Kevin proposes in the case of the mouse.

But Apple's failure to pay enough attention to # 2, leads to developers 
trying to satisfy the needs in divergent fashion, such as MS Word's menu reconfiguration, WordPerfect's use of function keys, or Nisus' use of multi-stroke Command key sequences. This eventually defeats # 1 at least in part. 

Apple needs to implement some sort of customization manager and guidelines 
for developers on how to implement interface enhancement in a way that 
assures unity across applications and the operating system.  In an earlier posting I have outlined some ideas about saving preferences in standard portable personal files that users could take to and load on any Mac to customize the Finder as well as applications to better suit their individual requirements and preferences.

Wolfgang N. Naegeli
President, MacClique--East Tennessee Macintosh Users Group
Internet: wnn@ornl.gov    Bitnet: wnn@ornlstc
Phone: 615-574-6143       Fax: 615-574-6141
QuickMail (QM-QM): Wolfgang Naegeli @ 615-574-4510
Snail:  Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6206