[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Serial Mouse

suppe@ge-dab.GE.COM (Dennis Suppe) (11/08/88)

I am in the market for a 3 button serial mouse.

The two I am considering are :

   Logitech Mouse (mechanical) 
   Mouse Systems Optical Mouse

I have worked with both of these on Apollo and Sun workstations, and
prefer the Mouse Systems Optical Mouse.

   Does anyone know if these are compatible with the Microsoft Mouse?
  
   Can the Mouse Systems Mouse act like a Logitech Mouse and vice versa?
   
   Does anyone know where I can get a Mouse Systems 3 button Optical mouse?
      ( I have only been able to find the 2 button type )

Thanks in advance,

Dennis Suppe.
--
	Dennis R. Suppe <suppe@ge-dab.GE.COM> 
	General Electric Simulation and Control System Department 
	1800 Volusia Ave, Room 4336 
	Daytona Beach, Florida 32015
	UUCP:  ...!mcnc!ge-dab.GE.COM!suppe  Phone: (904) 239-2563   

cacsc222%mx@csun.edu (11/09/88)

In article <1416@ge-dab.GE.COM> suppe@ge-dab.GE.COM (Dennis Suppe) writes:
| I am in the market for a 3 button serial mouse.
| 
| [deleted]
| 
| I have worked with both of these on Apollo and Sun workstations, and
| prefer the Mouse Systems Optical Mouse.

I use one of these at work and I love it.

|    Does anyone know if these are compatible with the Microsoft Mouse?

Mouse Systems is

|    Can the Mouse Systems Mouse act like a Logitech Mouse and vice versa?

Don't know.
|    Does anyone know where I can get a Mouse Systems 3 button Optical mouse?
|       ( I have only been able to find the 2 button type )

I didn't even know that they made two button mouses.  Try Priority 1.  They
occaisionaly advertise in Byte.  They have both the bus and serial versions.

To anyone out there considering a mouse, I highly recommend the MSC (formerly
Mouse Systems) mouse.  A joy to use, and they specify all the I/O in the 
documentation (I love the units of measurement for mouse movement -- mickeys).
In addition, they provide a "menu language" and "compiler" to provide mouse
support for applications that do not directly support a mouse.  They provide
sample drivers for many standard business packages.  I use their mouse with
Word 4.0  (using their Microsoft Mouse driver), and have had absolutely
zero problems.  When I buy a mouse for my home computer, I am 99.44% sure
that it will be an MSC optical mouse.


I have no relationship with MSC except as a (very) satisfied customer.


"Disclaimer?  We don't need no stinking disclaimers!!!!!"
Scott Neugroschl
...!sm.uinisys.com!csun!mx!cacsc222

brown@nicmad.UUCP (Mr. Video) (11/09/88)

In article <1416@ge-dab.GE.COM> suppe@ge-dab.GE.COM (Dennis Suppe) writes:
<I am in the market for a 3 button serial mouse.
<
<The two I am considering are :
<
<   Logitech Mouse (mechanical) 
<   Mouse Systems Optical Mouse
<
<I have worked with both of these on Apollo and Sun workstations, and
<prefer the Mouse Systems Optical Mouse.
<
<   Does anyone know if these are compatible with the Microsoft Mouse?

The Logitech Mouse is a CMOS mouse (no power supply required) and can be
programmed at least five different ways, one of which is the Microsoft
Mouse. 

<   Can the Mouse Systems Mouse act like a Logitech Mouse and vice versa?

The default mode of the Logitech Mouse is what is known as 5 byte
packed binary.  This mode is the Mouse Systems Mouse mode.  I do not
know if Mouse Systems makes a mouse that is programmable like the Logitech.

<   Does anyone know where I can get a Mouse Systems 3 button Optical mouse?
<      ( I have only been able to find the 2 button type )

Gee, I didn't know you could get a two-button one.  The ones that we have
at work are three-button.
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thaler@speedy.cs.wisc.edu (Maurice Thaler) (11/10/88)

Well, I used the MSC optical mouse for a couple years, but I recently 
switched to the Microsoft Mouse and like it MUCH more. The feel is
better, it seems more accurate to me, it is faster (this does take a
little getting used to) and it is more compatable. I thought the MSC 
mouse was compatable until I tried it with certain applications like
Autocad, AutoSketch, AutoMenu (hmm, these all start with AUTO I wonder
if there is a connection) at any rate, with all these for some reason
the UP/DOWN motion from the mouse got REVERSED! Very unnerving. At any
rate, since I do a lot of desktop publishing, I feel that a mouse is
very important to my work and I just like the feel of the Msoft mouse 
better. You can count on it being compatable with a Msoft mouse because
it is one. One short aside. I recently bought a new Msoft mouse for the
office here, bundled with Win286, and the mouse driver was not as good
as the old one on my DELL SYSTEM300. For some reason, sometimes it would
not load. I would call it a second time, it would say "mouse not found"
on a third try, it would find it. I switched back to the '87 version of
the driver and have had no problems. I think the new version was written
to overcome some problems with Msoft WORD which I don't use.

All in all, optical is nice but it doesn't have the nice feel as the
MSoft one does.

pad3563@ultb.UUCP (P.A. Deupree ) (11/10/88)

In article <1678@csun.edu> cacsc222@mx.csun.edu (Scott "The Pseudo-Hacker" Neugroschl) writes:
>In article <1416@ge-dab.GE.COM> suppe@ge-dab.GE.COM (Dennis Suppe) writes:
>| I have worked with both of these on Apollo and Sun workstations, and
>| prefer the Mouse Systems Optical Mouse.
>
>I use one of these at work and I love it.
>
Hmm.  I guess I just started off on the wrong foot with optical mice.  I worked
at a computer store 6 years ago (we're talking back in the days when the IBM PC
had first come out) and I worked with the first mouse for the PC.  It was an 
optical mouse (though I forget the company) that had a few problems.  I didn't
like it for quite a few reasons.  It was a pain in the butt to have to keep it
on the stupid mirror pad.  It's movement was often choppy (as will happen with
optical mice at times).  And it didn't always work (this has probably been
solved in the Microsoft mouse.

Since then I've worked with the Sun 3 workstations (that have optical mice)
and found basically the same problems.  I didn't like them either and have been
totally disenchanted with optical mice.  So I bought a logitech bus mouse off a
guy here and have had no problems.  I like it because it moves smoothly, I don't
need that dumb optical pad, and it's worked with everything I have so far.  Now
I just have to figure out how to field an interrupt from the dumb thing.
>
>To anyone out there considering a mouse, I highly recommend the MSC (formerly
>Mouse Systems) mouse.  A joy to use, and they specify all the I/O in the 
>documentation (I love the units of measurement for mouse movement -- mickeys).
>In addition, they provide a "menu language" and "compiler" to provide mouse
>support for applications that do not directly support a mouse.  They provide
>sample drivers for many standard business packages.
>
I think that most mice do have this kind of thing.  My Logitech came with a 
program to create your own menues for various software.  It came with sample
menu programs (although I have to adjust things because the mouse moves way
too fast in them) and it even came with a Logitech paint program (that isn't
that good, but heck, it came with the thing).  Gee, maybe I'll interface it
with the Wordperfect 5.0 I'm using and have something fairly neat.  @:)

-- 
Patrick A. Deupree				Bitnet: PAD3563@RITVAX.BITNET
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						Edgar Allen Poe 

mike@raven.BV.TEK.COM (Mike Ewan) (11/12/88)

	I have a Logitech mouse and am very pleased with it.  Also
	Tektronix OEM's the Logitech mouse for all of our Workstation
	products.

In article <1416@ge-dab.GE.COM> suppe@ge-dab.GE.COM (Dennis Suppe) writes:
>
>   Does anyone know if these are compatible with the Microsoft Mouse?

	The Logitech mouse can emulate either the MicroSoft mouse
	or the Mouse Systems mouse depending on whether or not you
	install the driver software.  With the driver it looks like
	the MicroSoft mouse.

>   Can the Mouse Systems Mouse act like a Logitech Mouse and vice versa?
	
	I don't think the Mouse System mouse is able to look like
	the Logitech.

>   Does anyone know where I can get a Mouse Systems 3 button Optical mouse?
>      ( I have only been able to find the 2 button type )

	I've never seen one.


-- 
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davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) (11/14/88)

The optical vs. mechanical mouse question is interesting. The users of
optical mice say that mechanical mice tend to need cleaning a lot (all
of the ones on our Macs seem to). The mechanical people say that they
don't want to have to use the optical pad.

Recantly the mechanical people have started using mouse pads. Now they
claim that there is no problem with cleaning needed. Not one of them
complains that they have to run on a pad.

My personal opinion is that any device with moving parts will have a
higher failure rate than a device of the same complexity with no moving
parts. I use both types of mouse and don't like mice in general.
-- 
	bill davidsen		(wedu@ge-crd.arpa)
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bob@stl.olivetti.com (Bob Weissman) (11/15/88)

In article <12586@steinmetz.ge.com>, davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) writes:
> The optical vs. mechanical mouse question is interesting. The users of
> optical mice say that mechanical mice tend to need cleaning a lot (all
> of the ones on our Macs seem to). The mechanical people say that they
> don't want to have to use the optical pad.

The Macintosh mouse picks up a lot of dirt because it uses a rubber ball
rather than a metal one.  The Mac mouse's ball reminds me of a rubber
pencil eraser, and seems to act like one, too.  The Microsoft mouse on
my XT at home has a metal ball, just like God and Xerox intended, and I
have never had to clean it.  I use a standard 8.5x11" pad of paper as a
mouse pad; it doubles as a note pad (when the top sheet gets full, I just
tear it off and discard it).
 
> Recantly the mechanical people have started using mouse pads. Now they
> claim that there is no problem with cleaning needed. Not one of them
> complains that they have to run on a pad.

The problem with optical mice is not the existence of the mouse pad; it
is the fact that the mouse must be correctly aligned with the pad in
order to provide the correct tracking.  That is, you cannot skew the
mouse pad and hope your mouse will track correctly.  You have to keep
the pad aligned with the screen aligned with the mouse.  This adds
extra cognitive processing to a process which is supposed to be
transparent.The Sun 3/60 in my office uses the awful Mouse Systems
optical mouse.  This thing has two felt pads on the bottom which pick
up as much dust and lint as any mechanical mouse with a rubber ball.

> My personal opinion is that any device with moving parts will have a
> higher failure rate than a device of the same complexity with no
moving > parts. I use both types of mouse and don't like mice in
general.

I use both types of mouse and like mice in general.  And good old mechanical
mice with metal balls in particular.


-- 
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rmb384@leah.Albany.Edu (Robert M. Bownes III) (11/16/88)

	The great debate over optical vs mechanical mice doesn't seem to have touched
on the subject of noise.... The sound of that metal ball rolling on a desktop 
drives me up the wall....Grrrrind, clunk, rrrrroooooollllll...AAAAHGGGG!!!!!

	As for alignment of the optipad, I've never had trouble geting it right
and feel no real need to think about the alignment after a short adjustment period....

	As for the writing pad idea...I like it. I'll try it at home where the mouse
is where it belongs....under my left hand....

	bob

-- 
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