Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!tmsoft!masnet!canremote!pds@quintus.uucp
From: pds@quintus.uucp@canremote.uucp (pds@quintus.UUCP)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Multi-button mice (Re: Xe
Message-ID: <89122504120955@masnet.uucp>
Date: 21 Dec 89 05:03:00 GMT
Organization: Canada Remote Systems Limited, Mississauga, ON, Canada
Lines: 32

From: pds@quintus.UUCP (Peter Schachte)
Subj: Multi-button mice (Re: Xerox sues Apple!)
Orga: Quintus Computer Systems, Inc.


In article <7339@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
writes: >> The problem with multi-button mice is confusion of buttons.
>> The problem may be just lack of consistency;
>I would venture to say that the problem *is* a lack of consistency.
And >this relates, of course, to the XWindows "tools, not rules"
paranoia.

I think that's right.  The really sad thing is that they needn't give
up their "'tools, not rules' paranoia" to fix the problem.  All that
is needed is for programs to be written in terms of user events
rather than in terms of mouse button presses and key presses.  If,
for example, a program was looking for a "selection" user event
instead of a left mouse button press event, then users could remap
selection to be whatever event they want it to be, and all programs
would behave consistently. And you wouldn't have programs like xcal
that can't be exited without a 3-button mouse (because you have to
hit the "on" button with the right mouse button to exit).

Oh, well.  Maybe X12 will fix this.
-- 
-Peter Schachte
pds@quintus.uucp
...!sun!quintus!pds

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