From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Simon Josefsson Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: [usability] mouse-1 for performing actions? Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 23:07:08 +0200 Sender: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1022015340 16807 127.0.0.1 (21 May 2002 21:09:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 21:09:00 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1 (Debian)) id 17AGsN-0004My-00 for ; Tue, 21 May 2002 23:08:59 +0200 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([199.232.76.164]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 17AH6y-00082X-00 for ; Tue, 21 May 2002 23:24:05 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 17AGsl-0004lQ-00; Tue, 21 May 2002 17:09:23 -0400 Original-Received: from 178.230.13.217.in-addr.dgcsystems.net ([217.13.230.178] helo=yxa.extundo.com) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 17AGsE-0004ie-00 for ; Tue, 21 May 2002 17:08:50 -0400 Original-Received: from latte.josefsson.org (yxa.extundo.com [217.13.230.178]) (authenticated bits=0) by yxa.extundo.com (8.12.3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id g4LL8lWa006535; Tue, 21 May 2002 23:08:47 +0200 Original-To: bob@rattlesnake.com In-Reply-To: ("Robert J. Chassell"'s message of "Tue, 21 May 2002 19:48:13 +0000 (UTC)") Mail-Copies-To: nobody Original-Lines: 43 User-Agent: Gnus/5.090007 (Oort Gnus v0.07) Emacs/21.2.50 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Errors-To: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.9 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:4259 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:4259 "Robert J. Chassell" writes: > Btw, do ANY other application have this mouse1 + mouse3 mark text > feature? I haven't seen it before. > > You must have been using poorly designed applications. The two button > marking technique often makes it easier for people to mark a specified > region than dragging. (Sometimes dragging works OK -- it depends on > the situation.) If this is a good idea (I don't know--I've never used the technique) perhaps it should be suggested to the GNOME people. Right now the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines [1] says something that doesn't fit well with how Emacs behaves: Recommendations: + The left button should be used for selecting, activating components, dragging, and the display of drop-down menus. + The right button should be used to display and select actions from a popup menu. + The middle mouse button should be used to paste the current PRIMARY (usually the last-highlighted) selection at the pointer position, as follows: ... [1] http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/draft_hig/userinput.html#mouse-buttons > IMHO dropping this feature in favor of activating buttons and links > with mouse-1 is more user friendly .. > > We should never reduce the quality of the Emacs user interface just > because other applications use worse interfaces. > > Please suggest to the developers of other applications that they > improve their work. (Besides improving the methods for copying, > please ask these developers to implement incremental search, which is > a highly comfortable and efficient way to navigate.) The goal should IMHO be consistency within the GNOME desktop since it is the GNU desktop, and Emacs can be a desktop application.