Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sri-spam!ames!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!pyramid!voder!apple!lsr
From: lsr@apple.UUCP (Larry Rosenstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Setting cursor position and mouse speed.
Message-ID: <7279@apple.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jan 88 18:50:04 GMT
References: <2532@auscso.UUCP> <7272@apple.UUCP> <888@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Reply-To: lsr@apple.UUCP (Larry Rosenstein)
Organization: Advanced Technology Group, Apple Computer
Lines: 32

In article <888@thorin.cs.unc.edu> steele@unc.UUCP (Oliver Steele) writes:
>
>... how does Apple recommend for people writing paint programs, for
>instance, to show that a grid or other constraining factor is in effect?  I
>notice that there's already some inconsistency -- constraining to a grid,
>in many programs, makes the mouse street-wise*; but constraining tool
>motion to an axis doesn't constrain the cursor to that axis.  


I think the philosophy should be that the user is in control of the mouse
and the cursor.  Therefore, the user can move the cursor anywhere on the
screen (even between grid points).

If the program has some sort of gridding on, then it acts as a constraint on
the object being manipulated and not on the cursor position.  In this case,
moving the mouse a tiny bit will move the cursor, but won't make any change
on the screen.

I don't know why the inconsistency happened.  It is possible that the
programmers considered constraining the cursor to 1 axis to be too severe.
(I think some users would consider such a constraint as a sign that the mouse
was broken!)

-- 
Larry Rosenstein

Object Specialist
Apple Computer

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