From: mcrae@husc8.harvard.edu (Andrew McRae)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: Multiple button mice vs keys(was:Macintosh advocacy (really!))
Date: 21 Nov 92 19:09:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Nov21.140907.17661
Reply-To: mcrae@husc8.harvard.edu
Originator: mcrae@husc8.harvard.edu

In article <By0y12.CEv@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>, faheyr@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Bob Fahey) writes:
>                                                         Again, don't take
> this as a flame, but don't you think that if a user can't remember which
> mouse button (out of 2) to use, they will be a bit confused about which key
> to press in conjunction with the mouse? (6+ possible keys) I have a
> 3-button mouse, and there are still some things that I need to do while
> holding a key. I have a hard time remembering if it is the 2nd button with
> the shift and alt keys, or the first button with control, or.......
> 
> My point is that swapping the 2nd mouse button to a key-mouse combination
> is certainly not easier to remember than a 2-button mouse.

It seem to me that if you're talking about a novice user (this is
important to remember), the arguments about the simplicity of a single
mouse button rather than two or more make a lot of sense. For one thing,
removing a mouse button isn't a case of "swapping the second mouse button
to a key-mouse combination" so much as a case of drastically reducing the
number of possible key-button combinations available. For another, the
novice users I've seen using a two-button mouse _do_ confuse the buttons,
_all_the_time_. The great advantage of a one-button mouse (again, if
you're a novice user) is that if what you want to do is the simple
point-at-an-object-and-click-on-it, you just don't have to worry about
deciding which button to press or which keys to push -- it's only in the
smaller proportion of cases where you want to perform more complex actions
that you have to start thinking about it. 

<does this count as a flame?>
The point that a _lot_ of posters on this subject seem to miss (I only
read this group occasionally, though) is that as the decision to go with a
one-button mouse was made very early in the Mac's design history, the OS
was designed with that in mind. So it's just so much bullshit to say that
"there are things I do on my {Amiga, PC, UNIX box, whatever} that would be
much more complicated with a one-button mouse, so the one-button mouse
cripples the Mac". The Mac interface works just fine with a one-button
mouse, thank you -- it's been designed to work that way.
<whatever it was, it's over>

> I know there are multiple button mice available for the mac, but does the
> OS support those buttons? If so, is their use standard between programs?
> Again, if so, then why won't Apple ship a multiple button mouse as standard?

No, the OS doesn't support those buttons. The extra buttons can, by and
large, be set to emulate a shift-click, or a double click, or some other
combination of keyboard action and/or mouse action. (Easy, because the
mouse and keyboard are connected to the same bus.)

Andrew.

-- 
Andrew McRae                       Internet: mcrae@husc.harvard.edu
                                     BITnet: mcrae@HUSC
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.advocacy