> but there is a lot of research that quantifies problems with
> mice and how they're used. I recommend [...]
Not sure, I suspect you have lost *focus* a bit. I have
mentioned: TOOLS. (Re-read the thread, perhaps.)
> context switching between keyboard and mouse is worse than
> using either alone
Thank you very much. But let us not start measuring the
microvolts over a noise in the order of the volts.
Example: better to go from, say, Helsinki to Zurich via the
railway--don't take an airplane!
I can't tell for Finland. (Incidentally, Finns seem to be,
willingly or not, I ignore, those *fools* who are *testing* the
snake-oil/baloney thing with the *bio*- [sigh] fuel: *thank you*
from the countries such Indonesia, who will then take the bait,
pay your bill eventually [see below also], and keep stuck in more
shit for the next decades.)
But for Switzerland I know. Kloten [Zurich's main airport] is
30 km from the center of the city, while the *Hauptbahnhof*,
the main station of the railway, is situated--surprise--in the
center directly.
If you are going to Zurich from Finland, and take the train, you
will spare you a *context switch* [Kloten-Zurich] at the least.
(Maybe even two, depending from Helsinki.)
QED, and end of example.
> Fitt's Law (and all of the other things we *know* about
> humans using visual interfaces) and how so many interfaces
> ignore it
I am *lucky* (like most people too, well): I am right-handed!
Would I have been left-handed instead, I would not--I mean, not
with this notebook I am using right now and like VERY MUCH--be
able to keep the mouse 10-15 cm on the right of the keyboard.
Hence, I can touch with the right little finger the mouse from
the keyboard most of the time, with not much a greater effort
than when I reach with the left little finger the escape-taste
on the top-left of the keyboard. (I don't have hands a' la
basketball player, just in case.)
As a left-handed I would [I am imagining] need as minimum to keep
the mouse at a diagonal [> 10-15 cm ... Pythagoras simplified:
a**2 + b**2 = c**2] from the keyboard: on the left of the
notebook there is [not at all a bad idea] the fan's exhaust--hot
air is blown out.
And as left-handed, I would also not be able to plug a notebook
LEDs' lamp in the USB port [the notebook thankfully has a total
of four USB ports] on the left ... notebook lamp which, beyond
increasing contrast [blueish light] on the keyboard, also
warranties that I can't pull/shift inadvertently. a, say, book
immediately in the front of the exhaust, obstructing it.
Then; I have *invested* a bit, I have bought a Logitech mouse [I
am Swiss, but have no relations with with Logitech]. Logitech is
not the cheapest in general. On the other hand, Logitech knows
well how to design GOOD mice. (With time, I am even planing
to take more fun with the mice: a battery status indicator to
display on the screen [I have seen a project for a Logitech mouse
already]; and a wheel who responds ... for now I can live without
these, and have other priorities.)
But I am digressing. Back to the point.
Sorry, and with all respect speaking: to which users of an
*interface* are you thinking: to hemi- or paraplegic ones?
I use a vi-like editor EVERYWHERE I can. And don't hesitate to
grasp the mouse EVERY TIME it makes sense--which it happens
often enough. The mouse sustains/complements well vi, I have not
noticed *problems*.
Have you ever seen "Teddy's" [Adorno's], or, even better,
Karl Marx's pictures of handwritten notes and originals? (I
have hold on my hands a [mechanical] typing-machine written
page by Max Frisch, typed *en vitesse* [read: average] speed:
it had two-three ball-pen made amendments only.) Guess, you
would hardly seek for *millions* of corrections and retouches
[context-switches] in these documents.
And how do you edit: hiccup-, or saccadic style?
I am too extreme? Not sure. Dijkstra^1 tells: --"Besides
mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of
one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent
programmer."-- And he is quite likely right. (Actually, there are
two pleonasms, I believe, in Dijkstra's sentence, but never mind;
moreover, and just in case, my own *native tongue* is Italian.)
Moral: don't worry too much on *context-switching*.
> the only really solid occupation use study of repetitive
> stress injuries found that it was *mouse and keyboard*
> use, not keyboard use alone, that was a good predictor of
> medical problems...
Oh please. I live in Indonesia. Spare me the joke of the *stress
injuries* because of the use of the *mouse and the keyboard*.
(Indonesia and ditto for: China, Thailand, India ... have we
reached half of the world population already?) It's like you
were talking of *manicure* in an ICU [intensive care unit] of an
hospital.
What about the hemorrhoids' injuries for those who sit too much,
are mice bad? 8-)
Cheers,
/Roy
1. Edsger W. Dijkstra, Selected Writings on Computing: A
Personal Perspective (Springer, etc.)
Notice that Dijkstra also says: --"About the use of
language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe.
It's equally vain to try do it with ten blunt axes instead."--
[R.L.: if you can't write/organize yourself logically, it's not
by zeroing context-switches that you will improve the situation.]
--
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS tak ada rotan, akar pun jadi
SSSSS . s l a c k w a r e SSSSSS no rattans, roots will do [if you are
SSSSS +------------ linux SSSSSS desperate, you must not be choosy]
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
