From: brydon@asl.slb.com (Harvey Brydon (918)250-4312)
Subject: Re: End-user on-line Motif tutorial
Reply-To: brydon@dsn.SINet.slb.com
Organization: Dowell Schlumberger, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 93 09:06:45 GMT

In article <25JAN199315503555@erich.triumf.ca>, music@erich.triumf.ca (FRED W.
BACH) writes:
>In article <1993Jan25.093440.25311@slcs.slb.com>, brydon@dsn.SINet.slb.com
writes...
>#Just curious, but what kind of mouse are you and your lady friends using? 
>#Every mouse I have ever seen would not work upside down because gravity pulls
>#the ball "down" ("up" to the mouse) so that no contact is made on the internal
>#rollers.  ...And how do you click on the button(s) if it/they are on the
>#bottom?
>#_______________________________________________________________
>#Harvey Brydon         | Internet:   brydon@dsn.SINet.slb.com
>#Dowell Schlumberger   | P.O.T.S.:   (918)250-4312
>#1. Politics 2. Religion 3. Women's (a) ages (b) weights (c) rights
>
>  Now Harvey, they mean that the mouse's head is where its tail should be
> and so its connecting cable is under the wrist not beyond the index
> finger, (don't they?).

Hmmm.  I guess that's what was meant.  (Duh, I get it)

>    Anyway, I heard that a trackball was just an upside-down mouse
> (in the sense to which you were referring).  I would very much like
> to start a discussion on this group on the use of the mouse vs the
> trackball.  I have my serious biases.  (I hate the mouse because of
> the real-estate it needs to run and because it is never in the same
> place twice.  I am a fairly good pianist, and if the piano got up and
> changed co-ordinates the way a mouse does, it would drive me crazy.)
> I'm pretty darned hot with a trackball, but correspondingly bad with
> the mouse.  Are there more like me out there?
>
>   Comments please, boys and girls.

I am in a situation where I am evaluating hardware and software for our field
organization, including input device(s).  On my mac and PC, I have a
trackball.  By a longshot, I much prefer the mouse.  I know that it can be
used on a large area, but in a previous job I learned how to use it quite
comfortably in a small workspace by using it in three dimensions (drag, click,
drag, lift, drag, ...).  No problems.  I find that with the mouse, I can make
large controlled movements more easily, direction is easier to control, and
very small movements are easier as well.  After doing some serious "heads
down" word processing for a couple of weeks a few months back (with trackball
and mouse), I discovered that I was getting a repetitive stress injury (carpal
tunnel, whatever it's called) from the trackball, but not the mouse.  I have
used light pen, tablet, mouse, trackball, keyboard for many years and never
had RSI before.  It is quite definitely related to the trackball.  I'll take a
mouse any day.  One thing that is interesting is that I find I can use the
trackball on either side of the keyboard (either hand) but I almost have to
use the mouse with my right hand.
_______________________________________________________________
Harvey Brydon         | Internet:   brydon@dsn.SINet.slb.com
Dowell Schlumberger   | P.O.T.S.:   (918)250-4312
 There are no rats in Alberta.  There are no snakes in Hawaii.