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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!beth
From: beth@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Beth Christy)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Cursor shapes
Message-ID: <1167@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 7-Oct-85 10:13:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: sphinx.1167
Posted: Mon Oct  7 10:13:16 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 8-Oct-85 04:04:48 EDT
References: <3281@nsc.UUCP> <1153@wanginst.UUCP>, <658@Shasta.ARPA>
Organization: U. Chicago - Computation Center
Lines: 34

[Life is just a bowl.]

From: gus@Shasta.ARPA, Message-ID: <658@Shasta.ARPA>:
>Shif, Option, etc. click can bee used far too much on a Mac. It is just too
>esasy to put a shift key conditional in the code to substitute for a more
>visual interface. One interimn solution is to change the shape of the cursor
>when you hold down shift where it makes a difference. [...]
>My general attitude was to change the cursor whenever you
>move the mouse over an area that does something different. I even have a 
>"no mouse" shape which appears over a "dead" area where clicks are ignored.
>This sort of code is fairly easy to write, as soon as you have all the 
>bitmaps created.
>
>							Gus Fernandez

Now *that's* a good idea.  The shift, option, ... features are far too
hidden - they're about the only things on the Mac that aren't intuitive,
yet they're also among the few things we have to remember without
prompting (assuming we ever found out about them in the first place).
Of course, it might be a bit distracting if the pointer flashed every
time you hit Shift in a text editor (since Shift-Drag does something
different than Drag).  But I'd rather put up with a bit of distraction
(or just move the pointer to the menu bar, where Shift-click doesn't
behave differently) than wander through completely ignorant of useful
features because I didn't happen to stumble on that section of the
manual.  Good idea, Gus.

-- 

--JB        (Beth Christy, U. of Chicago, ..!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!beth)

"What if the after-effect of the terrible bomb is unusual beyond belief?
 Wouldn't you rather the whole population had listened to somebody like
    the old Indian chief?"   (The Roches)