Quick brainstorming (long)

[Eric Dunbar]

On Thu, 09 Dec 2004 18:43:23 +0200, Peter Damoc <pdamoc at gmx.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 09:28:10 -0500, Eric Dunbar <eric.dunbar at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I think that's a really important point. Right-click (& middle-click)
> > should never be crutches upon which developers rely. As soon as you
> > REQUIRE right-click to do something important, you eliminate that
> > feature from the skill repertoire of a lot of people (dare I say the
> > majority). But, at the same time, if your solution to single-click
> > isn't much better than right-click you should _also_ offer
> > right-click.
> 
> I think I'll throw in my 2 cents :o)
> Right click for me represents 2 things:
> - context menu
> - gestures

I've been finding of late that I use the middle button far more than
the right-click... something about opening up new tabs in
Safari/FireFox/Camino and spending most of my time in those apps :-)

> The way I see it keyboard combination with the mouse clicks should mean
> alternative similar action, like in if I click a link with Ctrl pressed it should open it
> in a new tab rather then reuse the existing window.
> Also using a key+leftmouse for something like emulation of the right click will
> reduce my web browsing experience as it won't allow me to browse confortably
> with one hand on the mouse and the other scratching my chin :o)

Your problem is that you need more buttons! Of late I've taken to
playing Diablo II again (after four years of ignoring the wonderful
game) and I can have the laptop on the coffee table and the TurboMouse
with me on the couch... no keyboard interaction needed with the 5
mouse buttons, 6 other buttons and up-down scrolly wheel :)

> How do you propose to do mouse gestures with a one button mouse?
> 2 buttons are good as we all have a lot of stuff in pairs... :o)

I certainly wouldn't propose to eliminate the second mouse button!

What I do suggest is that most things should be doable with JUST one
mouse button and that developers should be prevented from being lazy
(as in GIMP) and relying on the 2nd mouse button to do things. I don't
know enough about gestures to comment on them but I suspect it's
possible to do gestures with one mouse button mice as well (I seem to
remember an early experiments on Mac OS in the late 80s by some
shareware app).

What I like the second mouse button for is to move windows around...
for me that's a more useful feature than contextual menus in some apps
(e.g. PDF & pictures viewers).

Eric.