Re: OT: Laptop for College Bound Student?
On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 04:39:22PM +0000, Paul Johnson wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-06-12 at 12:12 -0400, Gregory Seidman wrote:
> > Nope, the right-click is just the same as any other two-button mouse.
> > Pushing the mouse down with a finger to the left of the top of the mouse is
> > a left-click, pushing the mouse down with a finger to the left of the top
> > of the mouse is a right-click. The squeeze is an entirely different
> > operation, and can be bound to a variety of actions. If you just use the
> > mouse as you are used to using a two-button mouse, it just works (assuming
> > you have enabled the right-click in preferences).
>
> Either way, it still proves my ultimate point: Apple originally
> designed a single-button mouse to keep the learning curve as low as
> possible. The fact we're having this much discussion over how to make
> use of modern Apple mice suggests they're failing miserably at the
> intuition part of the "simple mouse." They have managed to take
> something with very little learning curve and made it an order of
> magnitude more difficult and less obvious to use than similar competing
> products, which seems to me is counter to Apple's overall UI goals.
Actually, if you sat down to use the mouse you'd find it worked just as you
expected. Or if you plugged in a mouse you were used to. But Apple
continues to design the system around a single-button mouse to make a
friendly learning curve. You don't need a second button to interact with
Mac applications. A click-and-hold brings up contextual menus the same way
a right-click does. For those of us who expect something different,
however, that is supported as well.
It's clear to me that you are arguing this from a position of dedicated
ignorance. When was the last time you tried to use a Mac? Perhaps a trip to
an Apple store would give you some experience on which you could base your
end of this discussion. Don't forget to ask the employees at the store to
help you out. If you tell them you want to see how to use the Mighty Mouse
as a two-button mouse, they'll be happy to help set the appropriate
preference.
If you don't want to actually interact with the user input devices and user
interfaces we're discussing, I certainly can't make you. You do have to
admit to yourself, however, that dismissing it out of hand with no
experience is no different from those who say Linux is too hard or isn't
ready for the desktop without ever trying it out.
> Paul Johnson
--Greg
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