Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!ames!pacbell!att-ih!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!hirchert
From: hirchert@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: A/UX window systems, Mac toolbo
Message-ID: <46100111@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 11 Mar 88 04:12:00 GMT
Lines: 101
Nf-ID: #N:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:46100111:000:6883
Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!hirchert    Mar 10 22:12:00 1988


As a user of both Macintoshes and a Sun workstation, allow me to offer my 
$0.02 worth:
1. On the issue of the 1-button vs. 3-button mouse:
   a. The technique of using keyboard modifiers to modify the meaning of a
      mouse click gives me at least 4 different mouse buttons.  If we allow
      the less convenient Caps Lock or the less universally available Control,
      we have 6.  If we allow combinations of modifiers, we have 32.  If we
      throw in double clicks, we have 64.  Of course, the three button mouse
      can use the same techniques and have three times as many, but I've never
      seen an application that really needed that many different variations
      on clicking at a particular position.
   b. When gripping a mouse between my thumb and middle finger, I find it
      slightly inconvenient mechanically to shift my forefinger between the
      three different buttons.  (Part of the problem here is that this shifting
      is side to side rather than front to back.)  On the one button mouse, no
      such shifting is necessary.  Instead, modification is done with the 
      keyboard modifiers (multiple fingers, fingers moving primarily front to
      back, with side to side motion performed at the wrist rather than at the
      finger).  I find this whole process mechanically more natural.  (As an
      aside, it seems easier to use a trackball or joystick in place of a
      one button mouse than a three button - you only need to find a place for
      one button and it can be made large enough to hit easily.)
   c. For the gentleman who had trouble discovering double clicking, I have
      two comments:
      i. Every introductory lesson or manual on the Mac that I have seen
         teaches pointing, clicking, dragging, and double clicking as the basic
         mouse operations.  I can only guess that you missed this because you
         assumed you already knew how to use a mouse on the basis of your
         experience with a computer using a multi-button mouse.
      ii. I can't think of anything that can be done with double clicking that
         can't also be done with a sequence of single clicks and or drags.
         E.g. double click on an icon=click on icon and select Open menu item,
         double click on list item=click on list item and click on button or
         click on list item and lit Return key.  Double clicking is a shortcut
         like much (but not all) of the use of the left and middle buttons on
         the Sun.  (On the Sun, most work can be done with only the right
         button, but some confirming clicks must be done with the left or
         middle button.)
2. On the issue of the fixed menu bar vs. pop-up menus:
   a. I like having a fixed reminder of the classes of things I can do and the
      application that is currently receiving keystrokes, fielding disk
      insertion events, etc.
   b. Some of the Sun applications I use have a menu bar across the top of
      their (primary) window.  It takes less screen space to display one
      menu bar across the top of the screen than to put one at the top of
      each of several different windows.
   c. I'm not bothered by the distance to reach the menu bar because the 
      nonlinear mouse tracking makes it easy to get anywhere on even a big
      screen with only a small hand motion, but if it bothers you, there is
      nothing that precludes pop-up menus in addition to the fixed menu bar.
      Indeed, there is an INIT available for the Mac that offers precisely
      that capability.
   d. All menus on a menu bar are equally accessible.  On a pop-up menu, the
      top submenus are easier to access than the later submenus.
   e. The fixed menu bar provides an obvious place for immediate reaction to
      user actions.  For example, when selecting a menu, the title can be
      immediately highlighted even if some computation or input/output is
      necessary before the menu itself can be displayed.  Similarly, when a
      menu item is selected, the menu disappears immediately as an indication
      that the selection has occurred but the title remains highlighted as an
      indication that the command is in progress.  Contrast this with the Sun
      interface where these indicators don't exist.  On one diskless Sun node
      I used, it was not at all uncommon for it to take 30 seconds before there
      was any visible reaction to actions like hitting the right button to get
      a pop-up menu.  This lack of reaction can all too easily undermine one's
      confidence in his or her understanding of the user interface.
3. On the issue of window activation paradigms:
   a. I am one of those people that finds it disconcerting that accidentally
      bumping the mouse can redirect my terminal input.
   b. It is rare that I want to input into a window and don't also want to be
      able to the effect of that input on the entire window.  In part this
      reflects a tendency on the Mac to keep windows no larger than they need
      to be see what one wants to see.  Where a Sun user might put a big
      window in the background and bring it to the front to see the big
      picture, the Mac user would tend to have a smaller window and use the
      zoom box to accomplish the same task.
   c. On the Mac, I tend to move the mouse cursor out of the window in which
      I am typing because I find it distracting.  On the Sun, I can't do this.
   d. On the Sun, I have to move the cursor to the window frame and click to
      expose the window and then move the cursor inside the frame to enable
      keyboard input.  On the Mac, I accomplish the same task by simply moving
      somewhere on or in the frame and clicking.  Thus, I need fewer mouse
      movements and there is less need for precision (since I can hit any part
      of the window, not just the frame).

The point of these comments is not to suggest that the Mac interface is
uniformly better than the Sun interface.  There are aspects of the Sun
interface that I would like to see incorporated into the Mac interface.
For example, I would love to have the capability of collapsing all the windows
of a running application down to a single icon when I'm not looking at it.
I also recognize that some of this is a reflection of my personal preferences
and work habits and that some of this may be a failure on my part to take
full advantage of the Sun interface.  (I work on a Mac daily and on a Sun only
once or twice a week.)  Still, I think there is reason to believe that Apple
knew what it was doing when it designed this interface for a multitasking
environment (i.e. the Lisa) and that it is not merely "good enough to get by"
but arguably superior for at least some styles of use (including both novice
and experienced users).

Kurt W. Hirchert   National Center for Supercomputing Applications