NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/comp/sys/laptops/3375

Internet Message Format | 1992-09-01 | 2.7 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!uknet!daresbury!doc.ic.ac.uk!rhbnc!csqx.cs.rhbnc.ac.uk!adrian
From: [e-mail] (A Johnstone)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Subject: Re: Portable pointing devices
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 1 Sep 92 14:39:03 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (USENET News System)
Reply-To: [e-mail] (A Johnstone)
Organization: Dept of Comp Sci, Royal Holloway & Bedford New College Uni London
Lines: 32
Nntp-Posting-Host: csqx.cs.rhbnc.ac.uk

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Edgar Matias) writes:

|> That's very interesting, though I don't understand why you would want to do this.
|> A mouse is a better all-around input device than a trackball.  Why would you want
|> to replace it with something that's worse?

Well, simply because a mouse is not a better all round pointing device. Just because
you are used to using a mouse doesn't mean its the best. As a sideways example,
I've always found motorbike controls more sensible than car controls, because on a bike
the delicate clutch action is performed with the hand rather than the foot, whereas
the non-critical gear change is performed with the feet. In general people's hand-eye
coordination is better developed than their foot-eye coordination, unless  perhaps
thay play large pedal organs :-). (US readers who've never seen a stick shift can
ignore this rather whimsical example).

Anyway, conventional trackerballs are indeed rather unergonmic, but imagine a device
that fitted snugly into your hand so that your fingers fitted naturally onto the controls
and where the mouse position was linked to the position of your thumb, giving accurate
control of the mouse pointer without having to keep part of your desk clear. As a bonus,
the trackman is always in the same place on your desk so you don't need to look away to
find the damn thing. I'm not the first person to suggest that Logitech provide brackets
for conventional keyboards, so someone out there must agree with me.

Actually of course neither mice nor nicely sculpted trackerballs are ideal. I've always
rather fancied one of those gizmos that psychologists use to track eyeball movement
coupled with a footswitch, so that I can look at a point on the screen and `click' without
moving my hands from the keyboard. Anybody got any better ideas? Maybe you should patent
them before parading them in front of the rest of us...
|>
|> Edgar
|>
                        Adrian