lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Brain-fried after too much hacking) (12/21/89)
tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) writes: >>In article <172@comcon.UUCP> roy@comcon.UUCP (Roy M. Silvernail) writes: >>> I have had to hassle with GUI's >>> that are less than intuitive because they had to change little >>> details(to avoid Apple's legal staff). >> >In article <7326@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes: >>While I'm overjoyed that Xerox finally wake up and smelled the bacon, I'd >>love it if Apple retained a few fascist look-n-feel copyrights on some of >>the stupider "innovations" they came up with for the Mac. They're easy to >>figure out: they're all based on Apple's brain-damaged choice of a single >>button mouse: >Spoken like a true techno-nerd, Peter. I have personally observed >highly intelligent and skilled UNIX programmers who could not remember >from one minute to the next what each button on their three-button >mouse did...Multi-button mice are brain-damaged. Yes, I agree with this completely! Now let see, does control-middle-mouse pop up the terminal menu in xterm and control-left-mouse the signal menu, or is it the other way around? >People find it intrinsically easier to keep mental distinctions >straight if there are significant differences between the things (e.g., >click vs. double-click vs. shift-click) rather than having them all be >relatively undifferentiated members of a flat class of phenomena (e.g., >left-click, middle-click, right-click). This depends: it is fairly easy to keep straight which button selects an object and which activates the menus on the amiga, since they are the same 99% of the time. Consistency is the key. >> Popping the active window to the front. >Part of the real-world metaphor approach to improving learning curves. >When working with a file on a real desktop, one almost always brings it >to the top of the stack first. You really haven't looked into the >psychological basis of graphical interfaces at all, have you? I disagree with this. One wonderful aspect of windowing interfaces is the ability to obscure other windows. There are many times where my active window is not on the top. Granted, I am not Mr. Computer Beginner, and I can see a need to make the active window come to the front if the person is a rank beginner, but it is not true that "one almost always brings [the selected window] to the top of the stack first." In fact, this is one thing that makes DecWindows a pain-in- the-butt to use (IMHO). >> Double-clicking as a normal action. I don't see what is so hard about double-clicking myself. Just so long as the user interface: (a) Allows one to set the double-click threshold period, and (b) Does *NOT* make triple-clicking and n-clicking a necessity. >> And the one-button mouse itself. One button means you cannot confuse it with another. Granted, two buttons used consistently are nice, but I prefer one button with a visible menu bar. >> [Peter da Silva] >Tim Maroney .oO Chris Oo. -- Christopher Lishka ...!{rutgers|ucbvax|...}!uwvax!uwslh!lishka Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene lishka%uwslh.uucp@cs.wisc.edu Data Processing Section (608)262-4485 lishka@uwslh.uucp "... This week, Shane and Rebecca meet some squirrelly country boys. Steve and Kayla grow further apart, while Cal and Kim come closer to finding Arthur. Justin and Adrienne declare war." -- from TV Guide's "Soap Opera Guide"
davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) (12/21/89)
In article <462@uwslh.UUCP> lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Brain-fried after too much hacking) writes: | Yes, I agree with this completely! Now let see, does | control-middle-mouse pop up the terminal menu in xterm and | control-left-mouse the signal menu, or is it the other way around? But this is as easy to remember as shift-option-click-click. And shortly you continue to agree with me... | This depends: it is fairly easy to keep straight which button selects | an object and which activates the menus on the amiga, since they are | the same 99% of the time. Consistency is the key. I don't think we have a major disagreement here at all. The Amiga works really well, as to some experimental window systems based on a three button mouse. I prefer the three button, since it allows one button (usually the right) to be dedicated to interfacing with the window, not the application. That leaves a "two button application mouse" paradigm, hopefully broken down to a consitant 'activator' and 'action' interface. I don't see why this can't be done in X, actually, it just takes some consideration of the user. The same rules hold for clicking convensions, such as click to take most common action, push and hold for menu. -- bill davidsen (davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen) "The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called 'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see that the world is flat!" - anon
tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) (12/24/89)
In article <462@uwslh.UUCP> lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Brain-fried after too much hacking) writes: > Yes, I agree with this completely! Now let see, does > control-middle-mouse pop up the terminal menu in xterm and > control-left-mouse the signal menu, or is it the other way around? In article <1943@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) writes: > But this is as easy to remember as shift-option-click-click. Which is why there is no option-shift-doubleclick shortcut on the Mac, no doubt. -- Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com "I see little divinity about them or you. You talk to me of Christianity when you are in the act of hanging your enemies. Was there ever such blasphemous nonsense!" - Shaw, "The Devil's Disciple"