mrys@ethz.UUCP (Michael Rys) (07/19/90)
In article <9240@goofy.Apple.COM> lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) writes: [stuff deleted] > >What is efficiency? Certainly 2 buttons allow you to put twice as many >functions under your finger than one; and 10 buttons give you 10 times as >many. But the questions is whether a user can deal with 2 or10 mouse >buttons. > Ever heard about mouse button interclicking? So with two buttons you will get at least 3 time as many functions (if you don't considering different timings while interclicking), for 10 you will get tons of functions. I currently use several applications which could greatly benefit from a three button mouse: MS-Word, HyperCard, Modula-2 and Oberon Compilers, even the Finder could benefit from it. How? Simply map the option, commands etc. keys to the mouse button, so that an Option-Click could be done by simply clicking the middle mouse button. It takes me more time to remember which key (Option or Command or was it Shift?) I need to modify the click and get a different result than remembering which mouse button I have to press. I must admit that you will have to learn at the beginning but afterwards it is no longer a problem (at least for me, I am using Suns and Oberon and Modula-2 systems on Ceres with a lot of 3 button clicking and it only takes me a few seconds to remember the functionality if I haven't used it for long). And what are you doing with X, which relies on a three button mouse? Map the buttons to Option-Click et al.?! I will stop here, since I discussed that on comp.sys.mac.hardware a few weeks ago (I still have a proposal for a useful mapping if somebody is interested). Cheers.../Michael >-- > Larry Rosenstein, Object Specialist > Apple Computer, Inc. 20525 Mariani Ave, MS 46-B Cupertino, CA 95014 > AppleLink:Rosenstein1 domain:lsr@Apple.COM > UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!lsr +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Michael Rys, V. Conzett Str. 34; CH-8004 Zuerich; Switzerland | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | UUCP: mrys@ethz.UUCP or EAN: mrys@ifi.ethz.ch | | mrys@bernina.UUCP IPSANet: mrys@ipsaint | | Voice: +41 1 242 35 87 | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ -- Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darueber muss man schweigen. -- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus logico-philosophicus