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From: schwartz@gondor.cs.psu.edu (Scott Schwartz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: 2 button mouse
Message-ID: <3348@psuvax1.psu.edu>
Date: 9 Mar 88 16:59:03 GMT
References: <4129@hoptoad.uucp> <283@rhesus.primate.wisc.edu> <1710@ssc-vax.UUCP> <241@eos.UUCP> <1735@ssc-vax.UUCP> <5674@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <7481@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <7602@apple.Apple.Com>
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Reply-To: schwartz@gondor.cs.psu.edu (Scott Schwartz)
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 31
Keywords: window human computer interface
Summary: Experiment needed, anecdote supplied.

In article <7602@apple.Apple.Com> lsr@apple.UUCP (Larry Rosenstein) writes:
> You would have to do
>an experiment with the Mac interface and the Amiga or Sun interface and see
>how well people perform on the same tasks (ie, selecting a menu item,
>copying data from 1 window to another, etc.).

Excellent idea.  A (non-scientific) observation I've made while
watching users with only a little experience on Macs and Suns is that
if anything can go wrong, it will.  On the Mac novices constantly pull
down a menu, then _Double Click_ on the item they want.  Usually it
works out, since when they first let up on the mouse the finder invokes
the selection they want, but there is a lot of useless mouse action
going on.  On the Sun they have trouble with accelerators (i.e.
keyboard/mouse combinations), and usually wind up just using popup
menus for everything. (i.e. select the Resize option to resize a
window, rather than crtl-middle mouse.)  When they do this, there is 
less of a problem knowing which mouse button to use because a popup
window gives them instructions.  In the end, both systems seem to work
well enough for novice users.  (Clearly experts use both with no
trouble.)

I wonder what would happen if these users ever found out that SunView 
supports multiple clicks in addition to keyboard and mouse actions. :-)
(Can you believe there are single, double, triple, and quadruple clicks!!)

#disclaimer "I like Macs and Suns and everything else."


-- Scott Schwartz                       | Your array may be without head or     
        schwartz@gondor.cs.psu.edu      | tail, yet it will be proof against
                                        | defeat.  -- Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"