TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: QUERY: Mouse nomenclature? From:Kelly Hoffman <kelly -at- NASHUA -dot- HP -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 13 Mar 1995 13:00:02 -0500
Jan Boomsliter <boom -at- CADENCE -dot- COM>, who apparently always uses a mouse
right-handed, writes:
> Left is always left, yes? no matter which hand you are using. I don't
> understand the confusion.
The mouse button you use *isn't* always "left". The button you use is
the one under your index finger. If you use your mouse left-handed,
that's the right button on the mouse. Clear?
> Numbering the buttons means we all have to learn which way the
> numbering goes: from left to right or right to left?
That's exactly what we want. The numbering-to-actual-button-mapping
depends on whether your mouse is configured for left- or right-handed
use. (Of course, there are also the folks who, for whatever reason,
configure the middle mouse button as "mouse button 1"...)
It's pretty straightforward to map "mouse button 1" to "the button
under your index finger," isn't it?
> So we may as well skip adding this layer and stay with left,
> middle, right.
Wrong. It's *very* confusing for lefties, who have to translate
"left" into "right" on the fly. That could be 20% of your readership.
(If you write for an engineering audience, the percentage may be even
higher, since studies show that more engineers tend to be lefties than
the average population.)
> MB1? ha ha ha ha ha ha How very IBM.
I believe that's DEC's convention, actually. Frankly, I prefer that
short nomenclature to "mouse button 1," which is what HP uses.
(If we ever do a FAQ, we need to put this topic in there, since it
seems to come up every six months or so! ;-)
Regards,
kkh
--
Kelly K. Hoffman Hewlett-Packard, Network Test Division, Nashua, NH
kelly -at- nashua -dot- hp -dot- com "Reading the manual is admitting defeat."
