Seiler@MIT-XX.ARPA (05/12/84)
From: Larry Seiler <Seiler@MIT-XX.ARPA> Is a rat (foot operated mouse) really a good idea? I don't think so. First, it's got to be sturdy to survive getting kicked around. It's got to be mechanically VERY reliable to keep tracking nicely in the dirty environment under my desk (if not under yours). I can make limited right-left motions by pivoting my heel, but forward and back or larger right left motions require lifting my leg (my heels don;t slip on the floor under the full wieght of my leg, unlike my arm, and in any case, my arm is lighter than my leg, therefore easier to lift). I doubt that I'll want to leave my foot sitting on it ALL the time (I move my feet around a lot), so when I start using it, I'll have to fish around blind for it (I can grab a mouse without looking away from the screen by using peripheral vision). Finally, unless the thing is a sandal that I strap onto my foot (and can you picture buying a "size 9" rat?), I can't make large movements by repeated stroking across a short distance, like I do with a hand mouse. I'm not being snide about different size rats for different feet, by the way. Have you ever tried slipping on sandals that are too short? I imagine sandals that are too long would be just as uncomfortable. I don't see that moving my hand away from the keyboard (for text editing) is the biggest problem with mice (granted, it would be worse in a schematic entry system, or some other situation where you have to repeatedly type a few characters, point, type...). My biggest mouse problem is that I can't "point ahead" the same way I type-ahead commands on the keyboard. I've never yet used an editor that was always faster than I was, and I don't think I should have to wait for the computer to catch up. In bravo on the Xerox Alto (my most familiar mouse editor), you can't click the button until the program catches up with you. This could be fixed by buffering the mouse position at the time of a key-click (I think that the Mouse Systems mouse does that). Is this a problem with other mouse editors? Anyway, I overlap the time I spend grabbing the mouse with the time I spend scanning the screen for the text I want to point at, so I'm not usually bothered by mouse-grabbing time. I don't really want to exterminate rats (nifty idea), but I'm sceptical about how well they'd work out, for me, at least. Oh, yes, how is a rat going to roll smoothly on carpet? (You think I'm going to set my stocking feet on a bare floor? Or that I could remove the carpet if I wanted to?) Enjoy Larry Seiler, Seiler@MIT-XX -------