Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!portal!portal!cup.portal.com!Will
From: Will@cup.portal.com (Will E Estes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Why make your IBM act like a Mac?
Message-ID: <26838@cup.portal.com>
Date: 11 Feb 90 18:54:17 GMT
References: <J.90Feb9190004@bucsf.bu.edu>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 31

< I've been reading a lot of messages lately from people that want their IBMs
< to act like Macs.......and now I have to deal with Microsoft Word for
< Windows so I can use my mouse with my word processor.  I'm getting tired of
< this.  If I want to draw, or run CAD,  or play games,  I'll use my mouse.
< Please stop trying to make my mouse run my system (Windows),  stop trying

This remark shows you have never used either Windows or Windows For Word
as more than a toy (sometimes we make reality conform to our expectations).
Have you noticed that the menus and dialog boxes in all Windows applications
have one character underlined?  These are accelerator keys, and you type
Alt-<underlined character> and this will activate that feature.  What's
more every option in every dialog box has an accelerator key, and this
makes for totally random access to any feature in the dialog box.  I have
been using Windows for years now, and much to my surprise I haven't used
a mouse very often.  There are days of using Excel and Windows Word where
I do not hit the mouse button once.  Every mouse action has a quick
keystroke equivalent.  

I can negotiate the user interface via the accelerators *faster* than I can
a character based application equivalent that does not allow random
access to any of its data-entry screen's fields (the equivalent of a Windows
dialog box's gadgets).  Most DOS applications working in character mode do not
offer such conveniences.  You should choose applications based on
the minimum level of performance that is acceptable to you, the minimum
set of features that your application requires, and the overall comfort
level you feel using the application.  Windows suffers in the first
area, excels in the second area, and it has no equal in the last.
Therefore to condemn it because it gives you the option to use a mouse
is not a fair appraisal of the product at all.

Will              (sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Will)