From: Jeremy Smyth (jer at domain online.ie)
Date: Fri 05 Oct 2001 - 16:55:33 IST
Quoting Colm Buckley <colm at domain tuatha.org>:
> It would be a lot better and simpler to implement a system whereby the
> UI remembered the pointer position at the time of the RB press, and
> warped the pointer back there after menu navigation is complete...
Not sure I agree - Think Afterstep's way of snapping to the logout box, or many
Pagers' way of warping the mouse to the "other" edge of the screen. I've been
using both these features to various extents for years, and they still make me
do a mental double-take. The mouse should stay pretty much where you put it
until you move it, and then it should move.
A possibly suitable solution would involve another mouse button, or mouse
wheel. Button2 is in little enough use for it to mean something special, and
using a mousewheel for menus is getting more established (anyone played
Hitman?). Only problem I can think of is lateral movement, i.e. for navigating
through multi-level menus.
Or the old reliable Button3 then cursor keys to get to the menu? Again, nothing
counter-intuitive about that, and it's already established in certain GUIs.
This is a specialised interface need (CAD etc.), and although I think the idea
of a moving menu is cool, the HCI implications are probably too great to have
it as a default setting in any mass-market application.
/jer
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