info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) (12/01/84)
From: Thomas.Newton@cmu-cs-spice.arpa |> |> In a good Mac program, the mouse is central, and there is no escaping it. |> It probably is true that any good Mac program will make effective use of the mouse. However, forcing the exclusive (or near-exclusive) use of the mouse can often result in a WORSE user interface than in a keyboard-only system. This is especially true of editing tasks -- for local changes it is much faster to type control characters than to use mice. I tend to use both the keyboard and the mouse where both are available; when forced to make a choice, I much prefer a keyboard-oriented editor (like Unix EMACS) to a mouse-oriented editor (such as MacWrite). I wish Apple would extend MacWrite to include keyboard commands for cursor movement (by character, line, page, line #, etc.) deletion/insertion (by character, line, or selection) selecting a block of text (like selection with the mouse) repeat counts (repeat the next command n times) Notice that this can be done WITHOUT violating Apple's philosophy that you shouldn't need to learn control characters in order to use a program. All of the actions that can be accomplished with the above set of commands can be accomplished with the mouse. The extra commands would basically provide shortcuts for people willing to learn them. To top this off, it ought to be possible to rebind every key (well, at least every control key -- allowing randoms to rebind "A" might lead to problems), and to save keyboard bindings in a "profile" file to be read automatically whenever MacWrite is run. Many people might prefer a "default" binding that looks like the current MacWrite keyboard. I would tend to go for something that looked like Unix EMACS/Oil/FINE. Still other people might prefer vi. The main point is that it is often appropriate to provide a CHOICE between two different ways of accomplishing the same goal, and to leave this choice up to the users. Saying that you know what the users should have and that they should be constrained to use your choice does not a good interface make. -- Thomas.Newton@CMU-CS-Spice