Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac:13769 comp.windows.misc:240
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!pacbell!att-ih!ihnp4!ihlpf!stuart
From: stuart@ihlpf.ATT.COM (S. D. Ericson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: 2 button mouse
Message-ID: <3952@ihlpf.ATT.COM>
Date: 10 Mar 88 13:43:03 GMT
References: <1635@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Organization: The Sage Hovel
Lines: 46
Keywords: window human computer interface
Summary: multi-button mice

In article <1635@thorin.cs.unc.edu>, steele@unc.cs.unc.edu (Oliver Steele) writes:
[History of Apple's mouse research..]
> 
> And as far as anecdotal evidence goes:  I constantly get confused about
> which button to use for what when I switch twixt X, Smalltalk, and
> playing with NeWS, and I've been mousing for 4 years and sunning for
> 2+ (hey!  I just verbed some more verbs!) and have both motor
> coordination and typing skills that are above average and can switch
> operating systems without getting near as mixed as the mice get me.
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Oliver Steele					   ...!uunet!mcnc!unc!steele
> 							   steele@cs.unc.edu
> "A sea urchin is the best way to comb the inside
> of a hairy tube."		-- Peter Wolfenden

I couldn't agree more.  I spent most of last year in a Smalltalk
environment (3-button mouse) working on my master's thesis.  I never
could quite keep those right two buttons straight in my mind.  It's
not that I didn't put the time in, it was just confusing.  The great
advantage of the one button mouse is simplicity for EVERYONE - I
consider myself a computer scientist, but I'd rather deal with
the keyboard modifiers (uses both hands, too) than confusing my
mouse hand like that smalltalk environment did.


Oh yeah, one more thing - I posted a not earlier about Apple
inventing Pull-Down menus.  I posted it because so many people
think that the Xerox interfaces were Pull-Down menus, when
they were (primarily at least) *POP-UP* menu systems - where a
special mouse button (yeah, that means you tend to need more than
one button) was used to "pop-up" a menu at your current location.
Apple *HAD* to have the menubar/Pull-Down menu to make the
single-button mouse effective.    And I, for one am GLAD they did...

Stu
-----
"PS/2: Yesterday's hardware today.    OS/2: Yesterday's software tomorrow."
	-- Henry Spencer 


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