Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rpi!think.com!linus!linus!smiley!edelheit
From: edelheit@smiley.uucp (Jeff Edelheit)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Track ball on a keyboard?
Message-ID: <1991Jun12.211919.12789@linus.mitre.org>
Date: 12 Jun 91 21:19:19 GMT
References: <91163.083144CJS@psuvm.psu.edu> <2909@sumax.seattleu.edu>
Sender: news@linus.mitre.org (News Service)
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA
Lines: 24
Nntp-Posting-Host: smiley.mitre.org

In article <2909@sumax.seattleu.edu> bentson@sumax.seattleu.edu (Randy+Cindy Bentson) writes:
>
>Christopher (or whoever wants to enlighten me):
>Well, I for one am ignorant but intrigued. I have used both
>the cursor arrow/hjkl keys and mice, and am curious
>about these track balls. How do they work? Will my experience with
>them be the - gosh, how to put this into words? - line by line
>(like Etch-a-Sketch) movement or a more subltle flowing movement
>that puts you where you want to be "instantly" - like mice do?
>
>The idea of having something on the keyboard is attractive (I
>always lose the mouse, or have no reasonable surface to run 
>it on). What other advantages are there?
>
>Cindy B.

The advantage to the trackball is that you don't keep moving your hand
all over your desk, having to pick up the mouse from the mousepad when
you gone to the end of the pad, but still need to go further, you
don't need to have a mouse pad, etc.  I think that the Microspeed ball is
a really nice design; it has a big ball and a large palm rest area.
It's available for PCs and Macs.

Jeff