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From: chad <yandros@gmail.com>
To: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
Cc: "Clément Pit-Claudel" <cpitclaudel@gmail.com>,
	"EMACS development team" <emacs-devel@gnu.org>
Subject: Re: Why mouse-1/2/3 ?
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2020 12:04:57 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAO2hHWZ2xjwiyzRwE2KbXjfAN0MEeiZVenQDV1ENbt3AvOOUMQ@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <00cf3d7c-c742-4e5a-a3ce-6cb36f199074@default>

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1965 bytes --]

If we're going to talk about common terminology, then it seems wrong to
ignore the fact that the majority of UI guidance talks about "click" and
"alt-click" far more than they talk about numbered mouse buttons. This has
been true since macs went to 1 button, since laptops with 3 buttons became
very hard to find, since mice with 5-12+ (yes, really) buttons because
available in every mainstream computer store, and since laptops with 2
buttons became virtually impossible to find -- to name just a few major
inflection points. At this point, the most common interface device has 0.5
buttons -- the "tap/click/etc" action of trackpads. Mice (and their related
desktop bretheren) have bifurcated between 2 buttons plus a
sometimes-clickable scroll wheel (ubiquitous in lower-cost setups) and
devices with many physical "buttons" (typically, 2 "main" buttons, a
clickable wheel, and at least 2 other buttons). If this doesn't match your
intuition, I invite you to do an internet search for "computer mouse" and
then for "gaming mouse".

This change to "click" is not an accident: naming the concept after the
action rather than the tool has been recommended practice from UI/CHI
researchers since at least the early 90's. UIs generally can't count on 3+
buttons, and most users don't internalize that many simultaneous modes
anyway, so "click" and "alt-click" are defacto standards. Even now, the
"alt click" is losing its hold, since touch-based interfaces are the
baseline for many users' experince, and alt-tap is cumbersome for most of
those.

To put this in more concrete terms: the last 3 devices I've used as my
daily driver, covering 15+ years and a solid 5-digit hours of computer use
have been incapable of directly producing a "middle mouse click", even with
modifier-chording tricks that belie the term "emacs pinky". The same is
true of nearly all of my peers and coworkers over that period, including
programmers, prose writers, and "creatives".

~Chad

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  reply	other threads:[~2020-04-27 19:04 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 43+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2020-04-27 11:23 Why mouse-1/2/3 ? ndame
2020-04-27 11:31 ` tomas
2020-04-27 13:36   ` Clément Pit-Claudel
2020-04-27 13:39     ` Dmitry Gutov
2020-04-27 14:08     ` tomas
2020-04-27 14:26       ` Clément Pit-Claudel
2020-04-27 14:50         ` tomas
2020-04-27 16:00     ` Drew Adams
2020-04-27 19:04       ` chad [this message]
2020-04-28  2:51         ` Richard Stallman
2020-04-28  3:48           ` Tim Cross
2020-04-27 16:01     ` Drew Adams
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2020-04-27 10:50 ndame
2020-04-27 10:37 ndame
2020-04-27 10:40 ` tomas
2020-04-27 12:32   ` Ulrich Mueller
2020-04-28  2:47     ` Richard Stallman
2020-04-27 10:41 ` Andreas Schwab
2020-04-27 10:47   ` ndame
2020-04-27 11:02     ` tomas
2020-04-27 10:53   ` ndame
2020-04-27 11:11 ` Po Lu
2020-04-27 13:29   ` Clément Pit-Claudel
2020-04-27 13:14 ` Dmitry Gutov
2020-04-27 13:27   ` ndame
2020-04-27 15:08     ` Dmitry Gutov
2020-04-25 17:45 ndame
2020-04-25 18:19 ` Zach Pearson
2020-04-26  4:09   ` Po Lu
2020-04-27  9:45     ` ndame
2020-04-27  9:53       ` tomas
2020-04-27 11:10       ` Po Lu
2020-04-27 11:12         ` ndame
2020-04-27 11:46           ` Po Lu
2020-04-26  4:08 ` Po Lu
2020-04-26  6:12   ` Tim Cross
2020-04-26 16:41   ` Drew Adams
2020-04-27  9:30     ` Po Lu
2020-04-27  9:40       ` tomas
2020-04-27  9:47         ` Pip Cet
2020-04-27 15:13           ` Stefan Monnier
2020-04-28  0:40 ` Michael Welsh Duggan
2020-04-28 15:27   ` Drew Adams

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