[OT] "The Condescending UI" (was: Do we need Win95/98/Me support?)

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:16:19 -0500, Nick Sabalausky <a at a.a> wrote:

>
> But how is just the basic "moving the pointer" compared to other  
> touchpads?

It's similar.  The only thing is, the click is actually a physical button  
(the whole pad is a button).  On a normal touchpad, you can click by  
tapping.  It doesn't work that way on the macbook (although you can enable  
it).  It has the right feel IMO, so it doesn't require too much strength  
to drag and drop for instance (push pad down, then drag finger, then  
release).

> That's the only problem I ever had with them (Well, that and accidentally
> "clicking" with my palm while trying to type).

This can't happen unless you push the pad down with your palm.  And yes,  
that annoys me too on normal touchpads, you just get used to not touching  
the pad.

> The physical buttons always
> worked fine for me, I've never been much a fan of gestures anyway.

These aren't your standard gestures.  All the gestures use multiple  
fingers, so the activation of gestures depends on how many fingers you put  
down.  One finger *always* signifies moving the pointer.  There are no  
"hot zones" or accidental clicking.  It feels quite natural, and even  
though it's not quite intuitive (there is no intuitive way to map number  
of fingers to something), you get used to it pretty quick.  The scrolling  
is awesome.  Just lay your next finger down, and instantly you are  
scrolling.  I frequently find myself trying to do it on my other laptop  
only to be disappointed :)  To me, that is proof to myself that I like  
it...

If you can bring yourself to stomach the apple store atmosphere, I  
encourage you to visit one and try it out.  It's definitely different than  
any other interface I've ever used.

I do have a gripe about the mac system, however: the whole special key  
shit.  Control, Shift and Alt should be enough.  Why do we have option,  
and that funky clover key?  Not to mention that on every other system in  
the world, ctrl-c is copy ctrl-v is paste.  On apple it's that key  
formerly known as prince that does everything (and it's not in the same  
spot as normal control is either).  I have to look at the keyboard every  
time I want to do something like that.

As a bonus, they've left off the home, end, page up, and page down keys.   
Instead you use (yep, you guessed it) flower-key + arrow keys.  And the  
backspace key is labeled delete, and I still don't know how to do what a  
normal delete key would do (delete the character that follows the cursor)  
can someone tell me?

-Steve