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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!rlgvax!guy
From: guy@rlgvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Question on the mouse, comments abou - (nf)
Message-ID: <805@rlgvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 9-Jul-83 00:27:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: rlgvax.805
Posted: Sat Jul  9 00:27:42 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Jul-83 18:10:36 EDT
References: <800@pur-phy.UUCP>,  <630@rocksvax.UUCP>
Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA
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I had heard that Xerox picked a two-button mouse for the Star because they
felt that three buttons were too many; the reason was that the buttons all
had different meanings in different programs.  Was that the reason, and
is there a reason why three-button mouses necessarily lead to this?  One
reason the Alto may have had this problem is that the Alto software wasn't
all part of one big project (people who have stumbled across the same UNIX
command flag character meaning one thing in one program and another thing
in another may recognize this problem), but was written as separate projects.
Or was the reason that they couldn't think of three uses for the three buttons
that could mean the same thing across all applications?

	Guy Harris
	{seismo,mcnc,we13,brl-bmd,allegra}!rlgvax!guy