Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!darkstar!ucscf.UCSC.EDU!isbell From: isbell@ucscf.UCSC.EDU (Art Isbell) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: NOT (click to type) in NeXTStep? Summary: NeXT GUI standards are click to type Message-ID: <8516@darkstar.ucsc.edu> Date: 4 Nov 90 18:53:06 GMT References: <1990Oct28.165341.6949@cs.cmu.edu> Sender: usenet@darkstar.ucsc.edu Organization: very little -- only me! Lines: 46 In article vesper@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov (Greg Vesper - RMS) writes: >In <1990Oct28.165341.6949@cs.cmu.edu> cap+@cs.cmu.edu (Chris Paris) writes: > >>I find it interesting that in this group people almost universally prefer >>NeXTStep to X. I might share these sentiments except for one glaring >>omission in NeXTStep (or in my knowledge of it). That is, I have found >>no way to eliminate the requirement that I click in a window to move the >>keyboard focus to it. I find this extremely annoying, and actually prefer >>working in X over NeXTStep for this reason alone. If anyone knows a way >>to configure NeXTStep the way I like, I would greatly appreciate a >>response. > >I couldn't agree more. This is a matter of personal preference of >course, but it would certainly be nice to have the option. Being able >to configure your mouse buttons to taste would also be very handy.. > I, too, have found the Sun style of window activation handy, but I seem to remember NeXT expressing their GUI standard that *explicit* user input should be required before anything happens rather than the system making assumptions about the user's intentions. I believe NeXT's rather stringent guidelines are more positive than negative because a certain level of consistency results. As I look at my "desktop" now, moving from Stuart to Workspace would require passing over Writenow and Digital Librarian windows. Should these windows receive "activate" messages just because they happened to be in the path between Stuart and my intended destination, Workspace? I doubt anyone would think so. I guess this could be circumvented by requiring the mouse cursor to reside in a window for x seconds before activation starts, but I could see problems with this approach, also. How does Sun manage? I occasionally assume that because the cursor is in a window that the window is the active window, and it is annoying to type and have something unexpected happen in the actual active window, but I'm adjusting to the NeXT approach. As to being able to configure mouse buttons, do you mean something more than the configurations allowed in Preferences in which the "right" button can be activated to cause the active menu to pop up under the mouse cursor (a handy feature, especially if you move the default position of the main menu out of the way mostly below the lower edge of the screen) and "left" and "right" buttons can be interchanged to accommodate lefty users? -- _____ ____ Art Isbell |\ | | | | \ 315 Moon Meadow Lane NeXT Registered Developer | \ | ___ |____| | | Felton, CA isbell@ucscf.UCSC.EDU | \ | |___| | \ | | 95018-9442 (408)438-4736(B) | \| |___ | \ |___/ (408)335-1154(H)