On 20/06/2004, at 5:27 PM, James Devenish wrote:
In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
on Sun, Jun 20, 2004 at 05:07:58PM +0800, Gordon Campbell wrote:
I always find it curious that Apple does have better functionality in
some areas and in others has remained stubbornly behind, despite it
being obvious there's a better option. The one that springs to mind is
the single button mice. Pretty much every Mac user I know has gone out
and bought a two button mouse for use with their Mac.
I have to admit this is one area where I'm yet to "see the light". A
lot
of people (including people on this list, such as yourself) seem
adamant
that they want multi-button mice. Having worked with Mac and UNIX
workstations, I'm used to both single-button and three-mouse mice, and
interfaces designed for such. I've also used Windows machines with
two-button mice or scroll wheel mice. I have to say: even as a "power
user", I've *never* been bothered by single-button mice. In fact, I
really don't care what sort of mouse I'm using. (Although, having said
that, I'm not much of a fan of 3M's "Renaissance Mouse", nor of
tablets,
and I've not used a trackball in the last ten years.) So I've yet to
discover "what all the fuss is about", although I can appreciate the
that there's "no reason not to" have a multi-button mouse.
I remember reading an article many, many years ago (far too many to
count) in the days when companies were coming out with mice with
innumerable buttons, and Apple steadfastly clung to the single-button
option. The argument was, and I believe it still holds true, that the
whole purpose of the mouse was to make things simple, and the
single-button mouse was the epitome of that ideal. More buttons make
things more complicated, thus defeating the purpose of the thing.
Having said that, now that I'm used to a 2-button scroll wheel (3
buttons if you count the wheel itself) I find it a little annoying not
having a scroll wheel when using other mice, single button or not (I
don't mind pressing the Control key, but it gets a little annoying on
portables, being a left hander). Apple's persistence with the
single-button model is still understandable in the light of their
original concept, but the world has become used to the contextual menu.
The only perplexing thing for me is the fact that Apple have built
support into MacOS X for 2 buttons and a scroll wheel, but still do not
provide the hardware. This remains one of the greatest puzzles for
potential switchers, in my experience.
--
Peter Hinchliffe Apwin Computer Services
FileMaker Pro Solutions Developer
Perth, Western Australia
Phone (618) 9332 6482 Fax (618) 9332 0913
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Mac because I prefer it -- Windows because I have to.
