[Usability]Re: Right Click the same as Ctrl+LeftClick??? [Re: Commit: Dragging images around works (sort-of) (fwd)]

[Alan Horkan <horkana tcd ie>]

> Deliberately breaking stuff would not start as a good idea.

unless it really is the best thing to do in the long run.

> > I believe that in general the ordinary user is confused by the concept of
> > right click.  Frankley 'Middle Click' and copying by selecting confuses
> > the crap out of me because I have used Mac and PC's for years (but only
> > relatively recently have i started using Unix like systems).
>
> It's done differently here, and you can't break software willy-nilly to
> change that.

consistancey.  differnce is not neccesarily better and giving users the
option is not always the right anwser.
while it might cause short term breakage it might be worth it in the long
run which is part of what i am asking.
in your opinion it would not be worth the short term breakage and I would
like to know if that is a generally held opinion.

Even so i will have a hard enough time convincing the Abiword developers
to choose a beheviour in the name of consistancey if it is different from
MSword on Windows unless MSWord at least on the Mac does it, which is
something i badly need to check but wont have the chance to do so until
Sunday.

If i am wrong i would like to know authoratively and then once and for all
and i will stop suggesting this concept

> (I don't believe that the presence of multiple mouse buttons is difficult
> for a general community of users who are comfortable with VCRs, remote
> controls, and buttony microwave ovens. What the buttons do may be confusing,
> and perhaps there's a way of fixing some of that, but the buttons themselves
> are not. Most Mac users I know have flaming-bum Microsoft mice, as it
> happens.)

if i had a mac i would buy a mouse with 2 buttons and a wheel
but i have also been in circumstances where users did not understand the
notion of double click and i had to spell it out fro them.
i also regularly misprogram my Vido recorder because there is no error
checking and i make a total mess of either the 24 hour clock or the date
(i keep meaning to build my own Digital Video Recorder

Thanks in advance

Sincerely
Alan Horkan


PS Happy thanksgiving to all the 'Merikans.