Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!ukc!dcl-cs!bath63!pes
From: pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Smee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: RE:Optical Mice
Message-ID: <2413@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk>
Date: 7 Apr 88 11:17:15 GMT
References: <880329-001407-1668@Xerox> <19117@oliveb.olivetti.com>
Reply-To: pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Smee)
Organization: AUCC c/o University of Bath
Lines: 33


In answer to Dean Brunette, I had one mail reply to my original query.
(Sorry, whoever you were, I've disposed of my copy so don't remember
your name, but thanks.)  If I recall correctly, the person was an Atari
person.  Anyway...

Dean is right, I believe.  Most mice I've seen (admittedly, mostly for the
IBM-PC, but I'd bet that's the big market) are 'intelligent'.  The stuff
that the ST keyboard processor does for the ST mouse is generally done
inside the PC mouse, and the PC-mouse returns what amounts to a character
string telling how far it has moved since it was last asked, and in which
direction.  The ST, on the other hand, wants the raw 'quadrature' data
which is basically a pair of pulse trains (really a pair of pairs, one
pair per axis) from which the ST can deduce which way the mouse is going
and how fast.  It would probably be possible to 'gut' a PC mouse but
would be a pricey option.

The person who mailed me, though, says that Mouse Systems Corporation
make a '2-button, quadrature' mouse which can be used with the ST,
though it requires you to rewire it to swap the two X lines (would be
pins 1 and 2 on the 9-pin connector).  I've written them asking for info
(and, if possible, a local distributor -- easier than international
mail-order or asking my brothers to buy me one and ship it over).

If anyone else wants to try them, they are 'Mouse Systems Corp,
2336H Walsh Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95051'.  (Note, I have no connection
with them -- at least not yet.)  (If any of the UK readers know who
imports Mouse Systems mice to the UK, please mail me.  I know that their
PC-mice show up over here, because we've got hundreds of them -- but I
haven't been able to trace them back to their source, think they must be
being imported with our PC's, one step removed.)

Cheers, Paul