Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 09:01:26 +1030 From: Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.org> To: Dag-Erling =?iso-8859-1?Q?Sm=F8rgrav?= <des@des.no> Cc: David Scheidt <dmschei@attglobal.net> Subject: Re: 3 button mouse Message-ID: <20050228223126.GL73162@wantadilla.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <86hdjw1hfb.fsf@xps.des.no> References: <4223788C.9060908@attglobal.net> <86hdjw1hfb.fsf@xps.des.no>
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On Monday, 28 February 2005 at 22:52:08 +0100, Dag-Erling Smrgrav wrote:
> David Scheidt <dmschei@attglobal.net> writes:
>> I need a three button mouse. Just three buttons, no wheel, no bells,
>> no whistles. I can't find one, as everything has a silly wheel. I'm
>> not picky about interface (PS/2, USB, serial, or Bluetooth will work),
>> or balls v. optical. Does anyone still sell these things?
>
> what do you have against mouse wheels? they are very useful in X,
> and also function as a middle button.
Let me count the ways...
1. Few FreeBSD applications support the wheel out of the box, so it's
not much use.
2. Setup is non-trivial. Every mouse seems to have its own protocol,
and I have a number here which I can't enable.
3. They're an ergonomic disaster. The wheel that functions as a
middle button is in the wrong position for this function. It
should be about 15 mm further towards the finger tip. In its
current position, you have to bend your middle finger to touch it,
and then you have to be careful not to turn the wheel (unless it
isn't enabled, in which case it's not a problem).
4. In addition to being in the wrong place, the spring on the middle
button is usually too heavy.
I'm currently using a wheel mouse (for the same reasons as David, I
suppose). The wheel is disabled. Using the middle button is so
unpleasant that I've chosen to replace it with the 1-3 chord click,
effectively reducing the thing to a 2 button mouse. Coincidentally,
just before I read this message, I found an old Logitech 3 button PS/2
mouse lying around, and I may end up using it again.
At least for FreeBSD users, mouse technology has not progressed.
Greg
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