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DEEPKEYS

My first contact               
with a mouse                That was on one of the      
produced instant            original Macintoshes, at the
revulsion.                  Computer Museum in Boston.  
                                                              
I think this is why:                                      
      
   I just need to double-click on *that*.    
   Oops, too far I overshot.  Oops, I    
   went too far back.  Huh, the          
   double-click didn't work.  My hand    
   jiggled a little when I clicked?      
   Okay, steady now... got it! 
                            
   Now I just need to drag that window    
   edge over: Oops, too far... oops too    
   far back, now I've got it, oops,         
   just missed it!  Damn, I brought the 
   window behind it into the forground.       Damn this mouse is 
   Now I've got to get that out of the        acting flaky! 
   way somehow...                             *Pound* *pound*. 
                                              Hm, maybe I need to
                                              clean it again.    
                                    

The point is that the mousey pointing
devices all require a tight closed
feedback loop.  You need to watch the
pointer closely while you're mousing.
                                                    
Compare this to                                  mac shortcuts,          
keyboard interfaces:                             windows key alternates,
                                                 x accelerators,            
  In theory at least you                         or the mighty emacs... 
  can close your eyes and                                                  
  just type things by                                                  
  feel and get a         
  well-defined result.   
                         
  In practice of course you need  
  to watch what you're doing to  
  catch mistakes on the fly, but  
  I contend that this is very    
  different: watching to fix     
  mistakes, vs. watching in order  
  to be able to do anything at all.                             
  
    
   
On the Macintosh, the menu pad    
("File", "Edit", etc) is pushed up 
against the top of the screen.  
In comparison, MS Windows and X               Well, as far as I know, X   
windows has the menu pad at the               always behaves like this... 
top of each window.                           But one of the funny things 
                                              about X Windows is that much
                                              of it's behavior is         
Macintosh fans insist that the                customizeable, and people   
mac-style is superior, because                running X with different    
"The edge of the screen has                   "window managers" get a     
infinite depth", i.e. you can                 radically different 
just slap your mouse cursor                   look-and-feel. 
against the top of the screen 
without fear of overshooting and                         For all I know, 
needing to correct.                                      there's some 
                                                         window manager 
                                                         that makes X 
   So how deep is                                        look exactly 
   your keyboard?                                        like a Mac. 
 
 
 
                                
                                                                       
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