Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uunet!bu.edu!wang!wdr From: wdr@wang.com (William Ricker) Newsgroups: comp.human-factors Subject: Re: trackballs (&mice & pens) Message-ID: Date: 27 Jun 91 22:07:20 GMT References: <91176.152002LPARKER@auvm.american.edu> Organization: Wang Labs, Lowell MA, USA Lines: 70 LPARKER@auvm.american.edu (lloyd parker jr.) writes: >I think that the trackball is a good idea, but ... I have used a trackball, many mice, and our own Wang tablet & pen. I currently use the trackball day-in,day-out primarily because it uses the least desk-space; I can pull it on top of the stack of manuals, or set in on the (high) shelf the monitor is on if the (low keybd) "desk" is too cluttered. It also stays where I've put it, so I can learn to find it by touch. (If only this keybd had dimples on the home keys; maybe I'll pit 'F'&'J' with my scratch awl, there's an idea. Thanks!) Warning: I'm a touch typist, and thus am biased against interfaces that don't supply fast-keys for every click, and pointing devices that interfere my home-key instinct. > it takes more effort to be accurate with the track ball than a mouse. For some pointing tasks, the pen beats both mice & balls in accuracy. For most tasks, I find the trackball superior, because i can lift my thumb from the ball and see the pointer settle before hitting/releasing the button; button click or unclick usually moves the mouse by reaction by a critical pixel. >mouse users do not have the wrist problems that can result from trackball use After I upgraded to MS Windows 3.0, I started getting wrist ache from the mouse. That has largely gone away since I got the trackball -- which I can have at several angles, including on the edges of things. (It helps that my space has more levels than most.) >I also think that to put any mouse or trackball type device on the keyboard >will make matters worse. Hmm. Have you seen the keyboards with either a miny-trackball or the ring-on-a-soda-straw just behind (or below) the spacebar, to be operated by the two thumbs? Lets you keep all 8 fingers on the home keys while mousing. Presumably you use the existing or extra CTL-ALT-SHIFT keys to indicate various clicks. > A person will not be able to type and use the mouse >at the sametime, nor would they a trackball, regardless of the location. >So I don't think it matters where the location is. 1. See above; I should be able to. 2. Even if both hands are emulating mice buttons while draggin -- and 102 buttons is a nice number to have on a mouse, if I need more than one -- having my fingers near/on the home keys rather than far away is good for this touch typist, as well as lower on energy expenditure. (Remember why light pens died.) >So what do you suggest? >I am glad you asked that, what about a thumb joystick type device, one that >would allow the user to move the cursor around in a more or less 90 degree >fashion, which would make things more accurate. Maybe that would work. >Such a device would probable work being located at the bottom of the keyboard. Thumbwheel cursors are excelant for Tektronix graphics tubes; they had 'em, years ago. I used 'em. Putting 'em under the space-bar would help touch type. Twisting one inside the other to make a sodastraw- and-ring assembley makes it fit better there and may make it more like drawing and less like etch-a-sketch if you want to be able to use it in PAINT programs as well as for rubber banding. Of course, in the coming generation of pen-based portable computers, there is no keyboard and no mouse, just screen and stylus. (Well yes, there is a jack for a keyboard -- portable or otherwise; ours has decent sized keys on the portable optional keyboard, but can accept a standard keyboard too.) No home keys to worry about when you're mobile. Is the desktop ready for pen-based computing? Wang FreeStyle 2.0 (works with MS Windows!) coming soon may answer that question. (No it doesn't run with Xwindows yet, although if you get somebody else's X-under-Win30, it might. I want one of those.) -- /s/ Bill Ricker wdr@wang.wang.com "The Freedom of the Press belongs to those who own one." *** Warning: This account is not authorized to express opinions. ***