jmcg (04/08/83)
On older Xerox office automation products (earlier than Star), they had a device they called a "mouse". It was a finger pad to the right of the keyboard. It most resembled a joystick*: the position of your touching it determined a direction and the contact area supplemented the distance from the center to produce a magnitude. Small, slow adustments were made using a light touch of a fingertip; large, quick movements were made using four fingers flat. I've always thought they put it in the wrong place. Where I would want such a thing is under my thumbs in front of the space bar. That would solve the problem of having to remove a hand from the keyboard to use the pointing device. It could easily fit in the palmrest area found on these new "ergonomic" keyboards. Modern mice appear to be best for drawing; for pointing, I'd like to see how this thumbpad idea would compete. Jim McGinness sdcsvax!jmcg (619)452-4016 UC San Diego, Chemistry or decvax!jmcg ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Will the future remember Bill Joy as the inventor of the Joystick?
Hamilton.ES@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (04/18/83)
The finger pad on the Xerox 860 is a CAT, not a mouse. I think it's an acronym for capacitance-actuated touchpanel, or some such thing (anybody know for sure?). --Bruce
Carter@RUTGERS (04/24/83)
From: _Bob <Carter@RUTGERS>
From: harpo!floyd!cmcl2!philabs!sdcsvax!sdchema!jmcg at Ucb-Vax
Re: thumbpads vs. mice
Jim McGinness
sdcsvax!jmcg (619)452-4016 UC San Diego, Chemistry
or decvax!jmcg
* Will the future remember Bill Joy as the inventor of the Joystick?
Hi Jim,
Would you be kind enough to supply a pointer to documentation for your
observation? I had thought that the word 'joystick' (to mean a small
gimbaled stick, often connected to two or more potentiometers, and
used for computer games and other applications) had a different
origin.
Such devices have been used for radio-control of remotely piloted
model aircraft since the 1950's, and 'joy-stick,' to mean the control
column of a full-scale aircraft, appears as early as 1916. It was
most probably originally a mildly dirty joke.
Unless you were also joking (and I am being dense about it), your
remark suggests that there is a Bill Joy, and that he used 'joystick'
as a trademark. What product did Bill Joy manufacture? Is he still
in business? Do you happen to recall where you first saw this use of
the word?
Thanks,
_Bob