willy@utcsrgv.UUCP (William Buxton) (05/05/84)
The terms locator, valuator, and pick are expressly NOT intended to refer to the physical device. The whole point of CORE and GKS is device independence. Furtheremore, a little thought will make it clear that all three terms apply, in different contexts, to a pointing device such as a mouse or tablet puck. Tablet pucks should not generally be called mice, although they have been in the literature. The term mouse applys more to a mode of using such a pointing device, namely using it in relative, rather than absolute mode. So again, in strict terms, "mouse" does not apply to the physical device. The tablet puck is properly referred to as a mouse only when it is functioning in relative mode. (If one needs any convincing of this, viewing it as hair splitting, try to give one other significant difference between the Mouse systems optical mouse, and a tablet.) So we have logical devices, as in CORE. These relate to WHAT is being done. We have Relative and Absolute devices, which are the two main classes of devices, or ways of realizing these virtual devices. We have physical devices, which are the packaged implementation of the former. So naming: tablets are driven by either a STYLUS or a PUCK. The only other term that has been used (instead of puck) is CURSOR. CURSOR is to be avoided as it is confused with the screen's cursor (which when driven by the pointing device, is better referred to as the TRACKING SYMBOL). To be consistent, the physical package of the mouse should also be called the puck, the mouse puck, rather than tablet puck. Why? Because there is a stylus version of the mouse, just as there is for the tablet. All of this is a mess, and confusing. So it is critical that documentation is well considered and consistent. If the term puck and stylus are used, then you have several benefits. One is, you don't have to write 2 versions of your documentation, one for tablets, the other for mice. Remember, CORE was developed to facilitate such switching.