Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!think.com!mintaka!bloom-beacon!LIGHTNING.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU!mouse
From: mouse@LIGHTNING.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Not impressed with MacX (< 3 Mouse Buttons)
Message-ID: <9012060641.AA16764@lightning.McRCIM.McGill.EDU>
Date: 6 Dec 90 06:41:24 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 54

I think this has mostly been carried as far as is reasonable in a
public list, most of which doubtless is muttering "shut up and stop
wasting my bandwidth, already!".

So I'll try to restrict myself....

> From: timbuk!cs.umn.edu!sialis!dmshq!com50!pai!erc@uunet.uu.net  (Eric Johnson)

Eric writes much stuff to the effect of "yes, it may be broken, but we
still want something that mostly works today".  This is a valid point,
and for environments like his[%], faking the missing buttons may be the
right thing to do.

[%] I feel confident making gender assumptions based on a given name of
    "Eric".  Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, Eric....

I suppose what I'm trying to do is to urge people writing new software
to ensure that it degrades gracefully - falling back on function keys
or double clicks[$] or shift/control/meta clicks or menus or some such.
While I think that it would have been better if MacX (to get back to
the example that started this) had provided only one button to clients,
I certainly understand why they chose otherwise.  And though I don't
like it, I can see that from their point of view they made the right
decision.  But I wish it had been an option, turned off by default.

[$] I'm trusting that R5 will provide something permitting proper
    multiple-click support.

>> My X11R4 on the NeXT presents a pointer device with only two
>> buttons.
> If I may make a suggestion, maybe then you'll want to "fix" various
> pieces of common X software that seem to require a third button.

(Or a second button, for that matter.)  That's a good suggestion.
There are problems with it.

One: I find I don't even have the time to fix the server, or my own
clients, that I use, that make the same (invalid) assumption.

The other: I do not consider myself competent to fix, say, twm; I would
have to understand it first, which would take even more time.

>>					der Mouse
>    P.S. Shouldn't it be der Maus (das Maus? -- I don't have my
>         Deutsch/English dictionary handy)?

If it were supposed to be German, I believe "die Maus" would be
correct.  But it's not; it's actually a contraction of a name my family
uses for me.

					der Mouse

			old: mcgill-vision!mouse
			new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu