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From: jfarrell@sun.uucp (Jerry Farrell)
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: mice, pens, and graphics
Message-ID: <379@sun.uucp>
Date: Fri, 9-Dec-83 17:53:10 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.379
Posted: Fri Dec  9 17:53:10 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Dec-83 01:21:10 EST
References: <4291@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Lines: 28

Your general point that mice are not as convenient as styli for graphics
is valid (somebody at Xerox, I think it was Bob Flegal, once comnpared
it to drawing with a brick).  But I'm a little surprised at your claim
that you have to move your whole arm, elbow, etc.  I think this may be
an artifact of which mouse you use.  I observed a while back that the
dePraz mouse (as used in the BLIT) requires a "power grip", which in
turn implies large-muscle motions.  But the other mice I've used (Hawley
[Xerox mechanical], Kirsh [MSI, Sun, others], Lisa's) all are designed
for only one or two fingers on top, and enough on the side opposing the
thumb to permit finger & wrist manipulation.  I just checked on this,
and find that I work with a wrist bone planted on the table-top, use wrist
rotation for almost any motion in X (I can cover this 80-column window
easily), and finger action for small motions in Y (15 lines of text is
about the comfortable limit of control). Larger displacements do take
arm motion -- but then, so do broad sweeps with a brush.

A confounding effect is the location of the sensor -- mechanical
designers want to move it back toward the wrist, to make room for the
buttons; users want it as close to directly under the index fingertip as
possible, to maintain the pointer effect.

For frequent changes between keyboard and pointing device, the mouse's
stability and cord position make it easier to acquire than a stylus,
which is a decided advantage in many UI situations; this and cost
probably outweigh the stylus' superiority for fine drawing, especially
given the relatively coarse resolution of most existing graphics systems.

jf