Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: moving mouse pointer under program control
Message-ID: <6490@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 10 Feb 89 21:55:38 GMT
References: <17871@gatech.edu> <6443@hoptoad.uucp> <1858@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <6476@hoptoad.uucp> <632@internal.Apple.COM>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 49

In article <632@internal.Apple.COM> SIAC@applelink.apple.com (Eric Ulevik)
writes:
>First, I do not recommend moving the mouse pointer under program control.
>
>However,
>
>In article <6476@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) writes:
>> >If some new hardware device is to be used to move the mouse, then 
>> >software is going to be needed to move the pointer.
>> 
>> Wrong.  But let's say that for some reason your product simply can't
>> emulate the Apple mouse hardware interface.  I can't think of any good
>> reason offhand, but perhaps there is one.  Then you would have to write
>> a mouse driver.  How would one go about writing it?
>> [ ...don't do it! You'll be incompatible!]
>
>For Macintosh computers since the SE - those using the Apple Desktop Bus -
>it is possible to build ADB devices, such as trackballs, and write software
>to respond to this device, such as by moving the mouse pointer.
>
>Documentation to get you started is in Inside Macintosh Volume 5 Chapter 
>19, and Technical Notes 143, 160 and 206.

Oh, come on!  First of all, you mean chapter 20.  Second, none of the
documentation you mentioned has anything to do with moving the cursor.
The Technical Notes are particularly irrelevant to this issue; #143
says "Don't call ADBReInit on the SE with System 4.1", #160 is about
remapping the keyboard for chrissake, and #206 is a few miscellaneous
questions and answers which have nothing to do with mouse devices.
There is one , count them, one mention of moving the cursor in
IMv5ch20:  "The ADB driver should handle the ADB command passed to it
and store any resulting input data by an appropriate action, such as
by posting an event or moving the cursor."  These are describing what
the standard keyboard and mouse driver do, respectively, for purposes
of example.  There's not a word about how to move the cursor.

My original message was correct; if you want to develop your own mouse,
you should simply try to be hardware compatible with the Apple mouse.
Like the existing optical mice for the Mac, you would be well advised
to come up with both a Mac Plus version and an ADB version.  If you try
to develop your own driver, you are asking for compatibility trouble
and for needless user inconvenience.

Your message does not show what it claims to show, and in fact contains
references so misleading they suggest a deliberate attempt to deceive.
I wonder why it was posted at all, since it says exactly nothing.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Consultant, Eclectic Software, sun!hoptoad!tim
"Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine." -- Patti Smith