Mice guidelines? (was: Re: Random thought...)

[Ric Klaren <ia_ric cs utwente nl>]

Hi,

Just read through a thread discussing to wheel mouse or not to.. and how
many three button mice are out there...

Well... Basically. It's out there. (Heh I now I have a logitech trackman
marble fx and it's the best +/- 70 dollar I spent in years... it's got
4 buttons and one of them makes the trackball behave as a wheel++, it locks
the scroll movement to the movement of the trackball (only
on windows for now... :( ))

But to get to the point... The windows software from logitech makes the
mouse/trackman fully configurable. You can put any function on any mouse
button. This is ideal if you have a flashy trackball like mine (I have the
buttons configured lefthanded because it's more practical) or if you are
lefthanded (don't forget the lefties outthere ;) ).

I think the guidelines should have a default mouse usage standard
(buttons/wheels whatever) (I trust it's already somewhere in a style guide
somewhere I hope...). But it should leave room for customization
(customization was 'our' middle name wasn't it). Furthermore making a
customizable/expandable framework is never thrown away work. (Looking at
the trend of mice getting more gadgets nowadays).

The logitech software uses a number of names for certain actions.

What's usually the left button is called the 'activate' action (if I recall
right got a 'crummy' microsoft mouse here)
The right button is normally bound to the 'context menu'. (I think that's a
very usable term for the menu that it usually brings up)

If the style guide was to adapt such a terminology it would not get 'stuck'
with a certain left/right/third/whatever button binding that could not be
changed (maybe put a little harshly..). Free room for customization as a
result.

Hmmm this is more of a random association =) If there's interest I could
make this a little bit more concrete (a proposal whatever...).

Ric
--
-----+++++*****************************************************+++++++++-------
- Ric Klaren - ia_ric@cs.utwente.nl ------- klaren@cs.utwente.nl --------------
-----+++++*****************************************************+++++++++-------
'And this 'rebooting' business? Give it a good kicking, do you?' 'Oh, no,
 of course, we ... that is ... well, yes, in fact,' said Ponder. 'Adrian
   goes round the back and ... er ... prods it with his foot. But in a
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