Re: Theory question on desktop and gmc

[Tim Allen <timallen godzilla zeta org au>]

On Wed, 23 Jun 1999, Jim Gettys wrote:

> This is the time I wish Phil Karlton was still alive... (he died a couple
> years ago in a car accident...).

But I'm having so much fun thinking up this wierd stuff for myself..
 
> One other item that was a major win on Xerox desktops in days of yore
> was "shift" selection.

Other than what? Are there other gems we should know about? Is there even
a book (other than "Tog on Interface Design" - I've read that) that I
could find in my University library to read?

> The idea is the following:
> 
> If the shift key is down when you select some text, it is sent to
> the original owner of the input focus as soon as the up event occurs
> on the mouse button.
> 
> This allows you to go grab things anywhere on the screen and cause the
> text to occur as input...

Sort of like the "select->middle-click to paste" that we already have in
X, except you don't have to worry about having only one selection between
all of your programs. And I think it might be a little hard to implement
with "mouse to focus" - but I agree, it's a darn good idea.

> The right thing to do is probably to talk to someone who has been
> there and done that before in this whole area.  Unfortunately, I'm not
> quite sure who to suggest.
> 				- Jim

Anyone who'll talk to us - I'm fine with that.