tada@athena.mit.edu (Michael Zehr) (03/15/88)
Thought i'd throw in my own two cents, cuz i have a problem with one-button mice that i haven't seen mentioned. I've used a number of MACs in my life. It's real easy. I don't even bother with the manuals anymore. But i haven't bought a MAC, because i'd rather not use a system in which all commands are entered through a mouse. I've also use vaxstations a lot (three button mice). I get confused sometimes, and have to check manuals, and make little notes to myself. But i haven't exhausted the interface capabilities of the mouse. If i took a little time, i could be much more productive because there's a lot more you can do with that mouse. (There's an unrelated reason why i haven't worked at using the mouse much -- i dial up a fair amount to the system i use, and with a vt100 there isn't a mouse, so i have to learn how to do everything without a mouse anyway.) Currently, i'm helping a friend write an arcade-style game on for the vaxstation (it's really neat -- you have to see it sometime!). (sorry -- mandatory plug.) It would be totally impossible to port it to a MAC. Any MAC. Specifically because there's no way one could change the interface to use a one button mouse and still have a useable game. For a real time interface, you can't have the user crtl-click, or shift-click, or ctrl-alt-click or whatever. Yes, it takes a bit of time to learn, to use all three buttons, but it would take far longer to learn how to get the same amount of control in the same amount of time from a combination of keyboard and mouse. (Particularly since there are keyboard controls as well...) The one button mouse is good, and easy to use, but in some cases it just does not provide enough simple interfaces. ------- michael j zehr "My opinions are my own ... as is my spelling."