From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Feb 26 14:12:18 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id OAA21872 for questions-outgoing; Mon, 26 Feb 1996 14:12:18 -0800 (PST) Received: from phaeton.artisoft.com (phaeton.Artisoft.COM [198.17.250.211]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id OAA21860 for ; Mon, 26 Feb 1996 14:12:13 -0800 (PST) Received: (from terry@localhost) by phaeton.artisoft.com (8.6.11/8.6.9) id PAA02735; Mon, 26 Feb 1996 15:04:57 -0700 From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199602262204.PAA02735@phaeton.artisoft.com> Subject: Re: Honeywell 3 button mouse To: dwalton@psiint.com (Dave Walton) Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 15:04:57 -0700 (MST) Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: from "Dave Walton" at Feb 26, 96 08:13:34 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk > > > If you dig through that marketing hype, you get this: It's a > > > high-resolution mechanical mouse that doesn't use a ball. That means > > > that it doesn't need a special pad like an optical mouse, but it never > > > ever ever needs cleaning like a ball mouse. Quite simply, it's the best > > > mouse mechanism I've ever run across. > > > > This sounds like the round Decstation Mice (or cheeses as we called them). > > Unfortunately, whilst they work fine (we also called them 4WD mice) on > > really rough surfaces, they're round, so you have no idea which way > > they're pointing when you grab them 8) > > Round? What a silly shape to make a mouse. I suppose you could find > "up" by checking the tail... > Why did you call them 4WD mice? What was their mechanism like? Everything you never wanted to know about DEC mice: | | -----| TOP | A | B | | | | ------ -----| \ | ___ | \. SIDE |' A `| \ B / ( ) \ / `___' ` The ball is replaces by two rubber-footed shafts (foot covers can be replaced). The shafts depend from the bottom of the mouse at a 45 degree angle and are orthoganlly opposed in the x/y plane in which the mouse is moved. When the mouse is moved in the +/- x direction, foot A rotates in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction, rotating its shaft an causing make-break -n a two gate directionally sensitive optical gate. Likewise, when the mouse is moved in the +/- y direction, foot B rotates in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. There is no rotation which causes dirt to be moved to the coupling mechanism, as in a traditional mouse or trackball. Personally, I always thought DEC mice looked like albino hockey pucks. 8-P. Using two of their massive plastic coated T connectors and four of their massive plastic coated terminators and one ordinary T connector, along with one hocky puck mouse, it's easy to create a fairly realistic model of the starship Enterprise: =========================================================================== Terry's DEC Enterprise model (ask about our other kits) =========================================================================== TOP VIEW: DEC mouse (or albino hockey puck if mouse is not available) | v _----_ ,---.,-----.,---. <-- DEC thinwire terminator ' ` `---'`-. ,-'`---' |=== | `-' |==== | |O| <-- ordinary 'T' (female connector down) |=== | ,-. `_ _' ,---.,-' `-.,---. ---- `---'`-----'`---' ^ | DEC 'T' (female connector to inside) =========================================================================== I'm suprised that no one else realised this -- after all, the VAX/VMS system clock starts at Stardate 1. 8-). Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.