{bad habits] Squeak for Windows - Ctrl instead of Alt key

Gary Fisher gafisher at sprynet.com
Thu Oct 11 13:04:15 UTC 2001


Well . . .

Xerox's Alto and Dorado were the first commercial systems with mice, and
used the button colors we see in Smalltalk and Squeak today.  The first
widely-distributed mouse-equipped personal computer was the Mac, the design
of which leaned heavily on the private demonstrations Apple's people saw of
Smalltalk at PARC, but the Mac, of course, had just a single button.
Microsoft made the two-button mouse a standard, though there have been other
offshoots with as many as a dozen or more buttons.

The three-button mouse is finally once again coming to the forefront, most
commonly in the wheel-mouse optimized for internet browsing.

Frankly, I think the mouse button issue is far and away more confusing in
terms of platform independance than the Ctrl vs. Alt issue.

Gary Fisher
Sent at 9:04AM EDT



----- Original Message -----
From: "John Hinsley" <jhinsley at telinco.co.uk>
To: <squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: {bad habits] Squeak for Windows - Ctrl instead of Alt key


> G.J.Tielemans at dinkel.utwente.nl wrote:
>
> >
> > 2. Wasn't the design of the red yellow and blue buttons not just the
> > solution for platform (mouse) independency?
>
> I *think* all mice were red, yellow and blue, once upon a time. Then
> some folk started bodging together OSs which could only handle two mice
> buttons and the rot set in. I think it's a tragedy: using the middle
> (yellow) button to copy and paste is a real time saver.
>
> As to the Alt & Ctrl keypress debate, I'm actually happy enough with it
> as it is. While I've no objection  to some swap around appearing as a
> preference, I'd like Squeak, by default, to operate the same on all OSs.
>
> Cheers
>
> John
>
> --
> If you don't care about your data, like file systems which automagically
> destroy themselves and have money to burn on 3rd party tools to keep
> your
> system staggering on, Microsoft (tm) have the Operating System for you.
>
>





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