Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!reef.cis.ufl.edu!bb From: bb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Bartholomew) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: NOT (click to type) in NeXTStep? Summary: Please let us use pointer focus! Message-ID: <25251@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> Date: 5 Nov 90 05:20:28 GMT References: <1990Oct28.165341.6949@cs.cmu.edu> <8516@darkstar.ucsc.edu> Sender: news@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU Organization: UF CIS Dept. Lines: 65 In <1990Oct28.165341.6949@cs.cmu.edu> cap+@cs.cmu.edu (Chris Paris) writes: > 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. In article vesper@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov (Greg Vesper - RMS) writes: > 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.. In article <8516@darkstar.ucsc.edu> isbell@ucscf.UCSC.EDU (Art Isbell) writes: > 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. Let me add my voice to these, and say that I, too, hate click-to-type. However, adding an option to enable pointer focus would mess up the "menu always in the left corner" semantics. Keeping the menu for the current application always in view is a strong reminder to the user as to which operations are available for any given program. Always making the menu work in the same way, in the same place, is valuable from a consistancy viewpoint. I am not sure how pointer focus would work, given the way the current interface works. Comments? I think the issue of an app that is "not being used" getting a signal from a mouse moving across it is a red herring. Logically, all apps are multitasking, and so they are all asking for input at once; the idea of a focus is just a convention to switch your input between apps. I will say that my style of work (System Administration / Programming) fits the pointer focus model much better. Typically, I am trying to do 14 things at once, and I like to run a mouse around the screen and drop little tidbits of input into all the windows / processes / applications I am currently riding herd on. I truly do more than one thing at once, and a fast application context switch is the most important key to this. I also use and value a "front" key, that alternately does "bring to top" and "bury" on the window that the mouse is in, even if all I can find is a little corner to put my pointer in. The alternating behavior, i.e. "bury", lets me use it as a "dig" key when I lose a window under others. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brian Bartholomew UUCP: ...gatech!uflorida!mathlab.math.ufl.edu!bb University of Florida Internet: bb@math.ufl.edu -- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brian Bartholomew UUCP: ...gatech!uflorida!mathlab.math.ufl.edu!bb University of Florida Internet: bb@math.ufl.edu