Re: Short-tailed mice

[dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar)]

Waldemar said

"Just hooked up a mouse to my TP 700 for a while. Well, have to say that
there is a big difference between a trackpoint and a mouse. The latter
allows you for much faster and more precise movements."

People of course vary a lot. I cannot tolerate a real mouse, since for me
it is so inferior in speed and convenience to the trackpoint.

Here is an interesting fact. Before IBM would allow the track point to
be released, it had to meet two criteria, measured over typical use of
portable PC's.

1. It had to be as good out of the box as a track ball gets with experience

2. With experience, it has to be as good as a mouse

Both of these criteria were met or exceeded in all the studies (IBM Japan
was particularly insistant on these two criteria). I know this incidenbtally
from a talk from the guy who invented the trackpoint, and in this talk he
showed the detailed figures, quite convining because some of the tests were
by folks in IBM Japan, who were inclined to refuse to believe that the
trackpoint could ever succeed.

Of course your milage will vary, as you see from Waldemar's account he
much prefers a mouse, I much prefer a trackpoint. My brother finds a
trackpad the only acceptable pointing device. The bottom line here is do
not listen to what anyone else has to say, try for yourself -- being
aware of the fact that first impressions may rank things differently
from impressions after getting experienced. The best thing is to borrow
a setup long enough to learn it at least reasonable well, then judge.

Same thing goes for keyboards. Some people really like the new tilt-up
keyboards on the new thinkpads. Me, I hate them, I find they fight my
typing, and I much prefer the old TP keyboards.