[comp.sys.mac.hardware] Apple mice and X windows

keller@rt11.cs.wisc.edu (Matthew Keller) (11/21/89)

Can someone satisfy this curiosity of mine?

X windows applications normally expect a three-button mouse
(or a two-button mouse with a "both buttons" button).
How will Apple get a Mac ONE button mouse to function as if it
were an X-type mouse with several buttons?

Matt Keller
keller%garfield.cs.wisc.edu@cs.wisc.edu

verket@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM (Paul Verket) (11/22/89)

From article <3804@puff.cs.wisc.edu>, by keller@rt11.cs.wisc.edu (Matthew Keller):
> ...
> How will Apple get a Mac ONE button mouse to function as if it
> were an X-type mouse with several buttons?

AUX X-windows uses the mouse button as the left button in the X. Left and
right arrows on the keyboard are mapped to middle and right mouse buttons
respectively.

Paul Verket

mjkobb@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) (11/25/89)

In article <159@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM> verket@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM (Paul Verket) writes:
>From article <3804@puff.cs.wisc.edu>, by keller@rt11.cs.wisc.edu (Matthew Keller):
:: ...
:: How will Apple get a Mac ONE button mouse to function as if it
:: were an X-type mouse with several buttons?
:
:AUX X-windows uses the mouse button as the left button in the X. Left and
:right arrows on the keyboard are mapped to middle and right mouse buttons
:respectively.

Then how do you move left and right?!  Do you have to do something like ^F and
^B?  

--Mike

erc@pai.UUCP (Eric Johnson) (11/27/89)

In article <1083@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>, mjkobb@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) writes:
> In article <159@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM> verket@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM (Paul Verket) writes:
> >From article <3804@puff.cs.wisc.edu>, by keller@rt11.cs.wisc.edu (Matthew Keller):
> :: ...
> :: How will Apple get a Mac ONE button mouse to function as if it
> :: were an X-type mouse with several buttons?
> :
> :AUX X-windows uses the mouse button as the left button in the X. Left and
> :right arrows on the keyboard are mapped to middle and right mouse buttons
> :respectively.
> 
> Then how do you move left and right?!  Do you have to do something like ^F and
> ^B?  
You do Option-Left, Option-Right, Option-Up, Option-Down to get the arrow keys.
For someone who uses vi a lot, this is not much fun.

The manual states that the usage is:

Left Mouse(button1):	actual mouse button
Middle Mouse:		Left Arrow
Right Mouse:		Right Arrow
Meta:			Command or Up Arrow
Control:		Control or Down Arrow

Please note that these key bindings are for the standard (small) Apple
ADB keyboard.  Personally, I don't like that keyboard for UNIX use, 
because of the positions of the arrow keys, the "~" (Tilde) and the
"|" (pipe in UNIX parlance).  The Escape key at least is in the right place.
(Right now, I'm using that keyboard on a Mac SE running Kermit to log into
a UNIX box, and the keyboard is less than optimal for vi usage.)

I use an Apple Extended ADB Keyboard (I think that's the right term), the
one that is affectionately called the "Saratoga" keyboard (because it
is the size of an aircraft carrier).  This keyboard looks a lot
like a PC/AT keyboard.  The Tilde and pipe keys seem to be in better positions.
I like this keyboard much better, and if you go with A/UX, I suggest
using the larger keyboard.

On this keyboard, the buttons go:

Left Mouse:	button on mouse (Apple's use a one-button mouse)
Middle Mouse:	option/alt key
Right Mouse:	Enter key on keypad
Meta Key:	Command (the pretzel symbol)

(There are two option, command and control keys--on both sides of the
space bar.)

The arrow keys all work as you would expect.
> --Mike

Note: When running X on a system with less than three physical mouse buttons,
I find a window manager like twm (Tom's window manager--supposedly the 
standard wm with the upcoming X11R4) preferable to uwm (Ultrix window manager,
standard with X11R3).  uwm seems to demand three mouse buttons.  twm
seems nicer--the title bar means that you need less of the Meta-Ctrl-Alt-Delete
key combinations to munge the window layout than uwm--which has no
title bars).  Yes, I know that all this stuff is configurable, I am 
merely refering to ease of use with a one or two-button mouse (two
is typical of PCs).  Window managers with title bars seem easier because
you need to go to the keyboard less.

Hope this helps,
-Eric

PS. I am constantly amazed to find what is standard with A/UX.  When I
compare micro-computer versions of UNIX (such as Interactive on the
386 PCs), A/UX comes out lookin' mighty fine.  Online man pages,
Berkeley sockets and so on are hard to find on PCs.

-- 
Eric F. Johnson, Boulware Technologies, Inc. 
415 W. Travelers Trail, Burnsville, MN 55337 USA.  Phone: +1 612-894-0313. 
erc@pai.mn.org    - or -   bungia!pai!erc
(We have a very dumb mailer, so please send a bang-!-style return address.)

kowalski@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Jeffrey Kowalski) (11/30/89)

In article <1083@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> mjkobb@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Michael J Kobb) writes:
>In article <159@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM> verket@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM (Paul Verket) writes:
>>From article <3804@puff.cs.wisc.edu>, by keller@rt11.cs.wisc.edu (Matthew Keller):
>:: ...
>:: How will Apple get a Mac ONE button mouse to function as if it
>:: were an X-type mouse with several buttons?
>:
>:AUX X-windows uses the mouse button as the left button in the X. Left and
>:right arrows on the keyboard are mapped to middle and right mouse buttons
>:respectively.
>
>Then how do you move left and right?!  Do you have to do something like ^F and
>^B?  
>
>--Mike


You don't!   Ha ha ha.  Good joke they played on us who got A/UX huh?
Let me tell you, it's awfully tempting to use those arrow keys in things
like EDITORS(!!!) but *nope*.  And they're not even remappable!

Sheesh.
Jeff

folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) (11/30/89)

"""" How will Apple get a Mac ONE button mouse to function as if it
"""" were an X-type mouse with several buttons?
"""
"""AUX X-windows uses the mouse button as the left button in the X. Left and
"""right arrows on the keyboard are mapped to middle and right mouse buttons
"""respectively.

Could they not have used the Option, Shift, Control, or Command keys in
combination with a click?  (i.e. Shift-click is left, Click is center,
Command-click is right?)


Wayne Folta          (folta@cs.umd.edu  128.8.128.8)

hodas@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Josh Hodas) (11/30/89)

In article <21012@mimsy.umd.edu> folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) writes:
>"""" How will Apple get a Mac ONE button mouse to function as if it
>"""" were an X-type mouse with several buttons?
>"""
>"""AUX X-windows uses the mouse button as the left button in the X. Left and
>"""right arrows on the keyboard are mapped to middle and right mouse buttons
>"""respectively.
>
>Could they not have used the Option, Shift, Control, or Command keys in
>combination with a click?  (i.e. Shift-click is left, Click is center,
>Command-click is right?)
>
>
>Wayne Folta          (folta@cs.umd.edu  128.8.128.8)


Nope, because lots of the window managers require you to be able to modify
mouse clicks with keyboard modifiers.  If shift-click is left-mouse, then how
do you shift-left-mouse?

Josh
-------------------------

Josh Hodas    (hodas@eniac.seas.upenn.edu)
4223 Pine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

(215) 222-7112   (home)
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dcr0@GTE.COM (David Robbins) (11/30/89)

In reply to various comments about how X uses the one-button mouse in A/UX:

While it is true that the arrow keys on the keyboard are mapped into the
mouse buttons, you should note the following:

   The OPTION key changes the translation of the arrow keys such that X
   interprets them as arrow keys.

This turns out to be a fairly reasonable solution to the one-button mouse
problem, since X would not otherwise have any use for the OPTION key.  CONTROL
and SHIFT are their usual selves, and COMMAND is the META key.

I am using A/UX X as we speak, so there's just a chance I am at least
partially right about this. :-)

geo@orac.hss.bu.oz.au (George Bray) (12/08/89)

I asked Apple about making a three-button mouse for MacX
and their answer was that third parties will provide an
ADB device, hopefully at the ship date of MacX.

I've only used eXodus which requires pressing your choice
of shift, option or command keys to tell the software
WHICH mouse button is down. This is pretty difficult 
for average users who grow up with one button.

	geo

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