Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!ames!ucsd!sdcsvax!net1!borton
From: borton@net1.ucsd.edu (Chris Borton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: 1 vs 3 button mice issue
Message-ID: <4737@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Date: 9 Mar 88 18:48:33 GMT
References: <4129@hoptoad.uucp> <283@rhesus.primate.wisc.edu> <1710@ssc-vax.UUCP> <14458@oddjob.UChicago.EDU> <1739@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Sender: nobody@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU
Reply-To: borton@net1.UUCP (Chris Borton)
Organization: UCSD Network Operations Group
Lines: 44

In article <1739@ssc-vax.UUCP> benoni@ssc-vax.UUCP (Charles L Ditzel) writes:
>In article <14458@oddjob.UChicago.EDU>, mcb@oddjob.UChicago.EDU (Still amused by setenv NAME) writes:
>> alternative to the standard interface.  The reason the Macintosh has a 
>> one-button mouse (in case anyone doesn't know) is that the average user 
>> works > faster with a single button.  Apple tested this fairly 
>> extensively, and it turns out that most people get confused when there's 
>> more than one button on the mouse.
>I take it you believe them?
>I have worked on a one-button mac and three button Apollos and Suns and
>I hold the opposite opinion (and obviously those companies must share
>that opinion since they give you three button mice).  I tend to work
>much faster on a three button mouse (three functions versus one function).
>When I go back to the Mac the one-button mouse seems completely awkward
>and lacking flexibility.  

Let's all try to keep in mind here one difference -- the Mac was originally
targeted at 'The Rest of Us', NOT workstation power-users.  (128K Workstation?
Hmmm...:-))  Suns and Apollos are targeted quite specifically at a technical
market that usually has some computer background already.  

Speaking in general terms, I would agree that a 1-button mouse is *simpler* to
use, while a 3-button mouse gives much more power and flexibility.  This does
not mean that either is BETTER, just different.  Different people, different
tools.  The proliferation of modifier key combination shortcuts on Mac programs
demonstrates the usefulness of this type of thing.

The Mac covers a much wider market than current workstations do.  It also has a
much nicer price tag (I'm speaking in generalities here!).  However, since
Apple has targeted the workstation market so clearly, this raises a potentially
interesting issue:

Would it be possible to add a three-button mouse to the Mac interface?  The
hardware would be simple enough with ADB, I believe.  The key to this would be
defining in the semi-usual-Apple way an interface that would function like
Color QuickDraw -- let the old stuff work like normal, and IF the new function
is there THEN take advantage of it.

Let's think about this carefully...

-cbb
Chris "Johann" Borton, UC San Diego	...!sdcsvax!borton
					borton@ucsd.edu or BORTON@UCSD.BITNET
Letztes Jahr in Deutschland, nog een jaar hier, en dan naar Amsterdam!
"H = F cubed.  Happiness = Food, Fun, & Friends."  --Steve Wozniak