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

[Sean Kelly]

My only gripe about the trackpad is that it's impossible to drag with the right button down. Beyond that, I actually like the control key setup on OSX, even if it isn't as comprehensive as Windows. The command key has a long history in the Unix world anyway. It's much better than the Windows key that just does one thing, and something I've never actually wanted to do. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 26, 2012, at 7:06 AM, "Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 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