Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!relay.nswc.navy.mil!zogwarg!anneb From: anneb@zogwarg.etl.army.mil (Anne Brink) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: No, nobody is left-handed (update on mouse silliness) Message-ID: <615@zogwarg.etl.army.mil> Date: 11 Apr 91 17:31:31 GMT References: <1991Apr8.194705.1225@ico.isc.com> <1991Apr9.062646.22750@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Organization: Engineer Topographic Labs, Ft. Belvoir, VA Lines: 72 >In article <1991Apr8.194705.1225@ico.isc.com> rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes: >> [comments about assymetric mice deleted] >>Ergonomic design which is openly antagonistic toward 10% of the population >>is not ergonomic design. >>-- Hear, hear! >>Dick Dunn rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd Boulder, CO (303)449-2870 >> ...Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it's been. phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson) replies: >I'm left-handed myself, but can't agree with you. I can use a mouse right- >handed with no problem, even on something tricky like the SGI flight >simulator. I once set up a Sun I had all to myself with the left-handed >options, but found it too annoying to redefine things or change finger >patterns when using other workstations. The left-handed options, IMHO, >border on fritterware. That really depends on a lot of things. I'm not at all right-moused when it comes to precision. I really need to use a mouse on the left, but I've discovered that most software doesn't expect me to swap the buttons around. With the buttons swapped, when the software says "click left", I will click the left button, even though it's now the "right" button 90% of the time. >Look, on the average, we're smarter and better looking than the majority. >We can put up with minor details more easily, too. >I play the banjo right-handed, as well, but some people wish I didn't. >This might have more to do with the instrument and my skill than my >handedness. We also die on the average 9 years earlier (someone's _bound_ to bring that one up) Maybe it's from all that stress induced by constantly turning the world backwards. We also have more allergies, which lowers our tolerance to annoyances in pollen season. [ insert (-: for the humor-impaired.] Different lefties have different problems mirroring all you righties. You will never be able to make me sew on buttons right handed, I garauntee it. I can play softball with either hand, but when it comes to precision, I cannot do things off-handed. To keep this in a comp.vein, the very few handist problems I encounter with computers are "computer desks" that don't give me room on the left for my mouse, keyboards with mouse connectors on the right (and short mouse cables), funnily shaped mice (see a theme, here?) and joysticks with the button on the left of the stick. Keyboards are pretty symmetrical, so are monitors, disk drives and modems. They are not problems, at least as far as handedness is concerned (-: I was a guinea pig for some software recently on a system that had the optical mouse pad firmly "nailed" down on the right, and had trouble manipulating the mouse properly throughout the test run, which consisted of outlining some shapes. It hadn't occured to the system setter-upper (or the developer, for that matter) that this might be a problem. I'm generally very pleased and often impressed when it looks like a developer has taken lefties into account in their productions when it matters. I am more likely to buy something that is not a difficulty to use. I am also more likely to _use_ it once I have it. >-- > | phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG | Phil Gustafson > | {ames|pyramid|vsi1}!zorch!phil | UN*X/graphics consultant > | sgi!gsi!phil | 1550 Martin Ave., San Jose CA 95126 > | phil@gsi | 408/286-1749 -Anne -- ############################################################################### Anne Brink # U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Labs anneb@etl.army.mil # Ft. Belvoir, VA , 22060-5546 ###############################################################################