__/ [r.e.ballard@xxxxxxx] on Sunday 20 November 2005 04:41 \__
> Actually, a "mouse" is actually a set of switches. The original mouse
> had 4 switches, left, right, up, down. In practice, the mouse would
> have two wheels, one for the up/down the other for the left/right. the
> wheels were moved by the rubber ball. The up/down or left/right were
> decoded two sensors. One would go through then the other, the
> direction was determined by which occurred first.
>
> The other switch was the button.
>
> Over time, additional buttons were added. Most UNIX mouses were 3
> button mice, most Windows mice were originally 2 button mice. Apple
> still uses the 1 button mouse.
>
> The scroll mouse uses the same principle as the other axis on the ball
> mouse, but uses a separate "roller". This actually goes back to
> electronic drafting systems on Unix that needed to manipulate the X,Y,
> and Z axis. Microsoft "innovated" this on Windows when they decided to
> make a big deal of DirectX 3-D graphics.
>
> Logitec added two additional buttons, for a total of 5 buttons plus 4
> directions plus the 2 scroll directions. Microsoft also put button
> sensors which can be pressed by "tilting" the wheel. That's 7 buttons
> plus 6 directions.
...And Windows is said to be intuitive. I have a hard enough time explaining
to my parent when to use the right mouse buttom and when to use the left.
Need more buttons? How about the keyboard? What's next? A pedal and a straw?
> Linux supports a total of 15 signals, which means you can either add 2
> more buttons, or switch the scroll wheel to a trackball.
>
> Of course, Linux has a configuration file that lets you define the
> functions of each of the button/signals.
>
> Maybe Microsoft will figure out something creative to do with those
> last 2 buttons.
Here is a proposal:
Button #14: throws Ballmer to the muddy pool beneath his chair at the fair.
Button #15: sends Wintrolls to circumvent an ongoing Linux praise
> Linux has a few other options. More than there are "buttons".
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | The most satisfying eXPerience is UNIX
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
7:35am up 17 days 3:29, 4 users, load average: 0.17, 0.47, 0.60
http://iuron.com - next generation of search paradigms
|
|
