Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 7/7/83; site rlgvax.UUCP 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 Lines: 13 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