Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ns-mx!iowasp.physics.uiowa.edu!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!rutgers!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!adobe!heaven!glenn From: glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: NOT (click to type) in NeXTStep? Message-ID: <314@heaven.woodside.ca.us> Date: 7 Nov 90 18:42:49 GMT References: <1990Oct28.165341.6949@cs.cmu.edu> <2955@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> Reply-To: glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) Organization: RightBrain Software, Woodside, CA Lines: 43 In article purtill@morley.rutgers.edu (Mark Purtill) writes: > And if you would find it horrible to have pointer-focus, >that's exactly how I feel about click-to-type. Different people have >different preferences, and NeXT won't make any sales by telling people >that their preferences are wrong. NeXTStep should provide an OPTION >for pointer focus, and, yes, this *is* a significnat factor in which >machine I buy (Sparc vs. Next). It's true that having the option would be nice. Just as a data point, I used Suns a lot before I got my NeXT machine. I was a die-hard fan of pointer focus, and it was one of the reasons I didn't like the Mac. However, I didn't consider that to be important enough to affect a multi-thousand dollar buying decision, so I got the NeXT anyway. It took me about a day to get used to click-focus, and I like it just fine now. Probably the most important thing to realize in this discussion is that it is NOT "click-to-type". On the Sun, you have to type a lot, because basically all you have is a lot of terminal windows and Emacs sessions, all of which are highly keyboard driven. Pointer focus is great because if you're not using the mouse, it's easier to just bump it into the right place then to actually find the mouse button and click it. It's the back-and-forth between keyboard and mouse that kills you. But on the NeXT, you end up using the mouse a lot, and you don't even notice the click-focus. Please, I know I have grossly over-generalized the Sun interface, but it was intended as a characature to make my point. Don't bother flaming me on that particular issue :-) Anyway, I don't miss the pointer-focus from the Sun, and I'd bet you six dollars you won't either. Glenn Reid -- Glenn Reid RightBrain Software glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us PostScript/NeXT developers ..{adobe,next}!heaven!glenn 415-851-1785