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From: kanarick@bbn.com (Craig M. Kanarick)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Track ball on a keyboard?
Message-ID: <64633@bbn.BBN.COM>
Date: 12 Jun 91 19:43:26 GMT
References: <91163.083144CJS@psuvm.psu.edu>
Sender: news@bbn.com
Reply-To: kanarick@vax.bbn.com (Craig M. Kanarick)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 35

In article <91163.083144CJS@psuvm.psu.edu> CJS@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>I understand that users of track balls find them superior to mice.
>They are now readily available as mice replacements.
>
>But I would like to see keyboards with track balls built-in.  I'll bet
>there are some now or rsn.  Comments?
>
>It seems to me that it would be nice to reach the ball without moving
>your fingers from the home row of the keyboard (unlike most cursor keys
>and function keys).  I wonder how a location right below the space bar,
>reachable by either thumb, would work.  Comments?


The portable Mac-compatible made by Outbound Systems has exactly this
feature.  It isn't exactly a trackball, it is more like a track-bar.
It is a small, cylindrical tube recessed in a space-bar shaped key.
Rolling the bar moves the cursor up and down, and sliding the bar
to the left or right moves the cursor horizontally.  Pressing the 
bar down (and hence, the key in which it is recessed) is like
pressing the mouse button.

I really like this interface.  It only took me about 15 minutes to
really get used to it, and once I was, it was hard to go back
to a regular mouse.  It is amazing how much faster it is to work
with a "mouse" without having to move one of my hands off the
keyboard.

-- cmk

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						"Do I love you?  Yes, I
Craig M. Kanarick             			 love you.  All this talking,
kanarick@bbn.com				 talking, is only bravado..."
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