I really miss the pseudowriting (Graffiti) on the old Palms. I was
really fast with that on my old M100.
And it didn't bother you that you had to conform to the machine because the machine couldn't conform to you?
hm, there was an alternative input method, which proposed to be much faster...
one would start in the center, andmove into any of the 8 directions (up, upright....) and then left/right and back to the center; it would choose a letter by that.
since you don't have to lift your pen, much faster.
since it was patented, nobody implemented it.
Fri Jan 07 2011 04:58:41 PM EST from Ford II @ UncensoredI really miss the pseudowriting (Graffiti) on the old Palms. I was
really fast with that on my old M100.
And it didn't bother you that you had to conform to the machine because the machine couldn't conform to you?
I feel that way about most of my interpersonal reactions, but I'm willing to compromise with my computers.
So Jan 09 2011 13:42:51 EST von Ford II @ Uncensored Betreff: Re:thats funny. im the opposite. we built the machine we houldnt have to conform to it.
hey, I'm a huge fan of "the machine has adopt to me, not me to the machine."
The example I like to use are IBM's 5080 and 6090 graphics terminals for use with their CADAM and CATIA software. For those not familiar, CADAM was IBM's mainframe-based 2D drawing software targeted at the architectural and engineering industries. CATIA was IBM's 3D modelling software.
Anyways. Both the 5080 and the 6090, fully equipped, came with a standard keyboard, drawing tablet with a mouse-like "puck," a secondary keypad with a grid of programmable LED-lit buttons called (strangely enough) the Lighted Programmable Function Keypad (LPFK), and another pad with eight knobs (or dials) arranged in a 2x4 grid.
It took some getting used to, but once I learned the basics of how to operate the software, I could churn out drawings at an amazing speed. It was a simple matter of using the puck to select an object, and then pressing the right button on the LPFK to set an end-point, or set the radius of a circle, etc.
Right hand on the puck, left hand on the LPFK. No need to move my hands from device to device, no need to look down to see what button I'm hitting.
Though I've never used AutoDesk, or another PC-based drafting tool, I can't make any broad claims, but I have a hard time imagining how I could be that efficient using a typical mouse and keyboard setup.
5080 Binder
having done
- some autocad work (acad 10...)
- eagle (pcb layout)
- co-authored a homebrew IC-Layout program
I can just say, use the mouse to get an aproximate position, and use the keyboard to snap to rasters, splins or whatever.
Have a descent commandline completion as in autocad, or just defined rules (as a process description how far structures may be next to each other)
And you're faster then with mouse, tablet or keyboard alone.
I have an engineer friend that would totally agree with you. We both came to the conclusion that the keyboard/mouse setup is totally wrong for spreadsheets. You need the numeric key pad on the left or use the mose left handed. Every time I build a spread sheet I am constantly having to take my hand off the key pad to move the mouse or vice versa. My friend Bill has even gone so far as to get a USB key pad and has learned to operate it left handed.
heh... I actualy own standalone keypads.
my cherry g-80-5000 has a ps2 plug to attach one.
but since I almost never enter huge amounts of numbers, its simply resting in some drawer and collecting dust for 10 years now.
The only spreadsheed I regulary have to service is the hour-plan at $work; which, yes, is pain in the ass to operate.
I therefore filed a bugreport to openoffice to have a scroll-lock support so the spreadsheet moves, and the cursor remains in the same place...
nobody seems to find it usefull. So i'll continue hating spreadsheets.
The first are terminal-style applications with a scroll-back buffer. The decent terminal apps have options to control auto-jumping when you've scrolled back through the buffer, but why not just use scroll lock? When scroll lock is on, you can scroll anywhere in the buffer with out auto-jumping occurring.
Turn off scroll lock, and the next thing the terminal prints auto-jumps to the current cursor position.
As bart just mentioned, scroll lock could also be useful in spreadsheets and text editors where you want to cursor to remain in a fixed position on screen while scrolling the document underneath.
Scroll Binder
I like to think of it as, the machine makes apparent to us a better way
of doing something.
This is true, in fact our written characters are kinda lame and in some cases completely ambiguous.
But I come from the starting point of the computer exists to aid the human.
Yes if the computer makes it obvious that there are better ways to do things maybe we should do them. In this case, we should change our writing to match grafitti, but until we do that, the machine should conform to us, we shouldn't have to learn two.
nobody seems to find it usefull. So i'll continue hating
spreadsheets.
The common shortcut for this in some editors I play with is ctrl-arrows moves the screen not the cursor as you suggest.
I tried it in openoffice and it zoomed to the edge of the sheet. I think the scroll is a better use of the control key.
using scroll lock might make more sense, but it's two extra button pushes for a button that's out of the way.
too bad.
I was able to set this fairly easily in ultra edit too.
scroll lock is just an inconvienent key to hit.
Mi Jan 12 2011 17:00:17 EST von Ford II @ Uncensored Betreff: Re:nobody seems to find it usefull. So i'll continue hating
spreadsheets.
The common shortcut for this in some editors I play with is ctrl-arrows moves the screen not the cursor as you suggest.
I tried it in openoffice and it zoomed to the edge of the sheet. I think the scroll is a better use of the control key.
using scroll lock might make more sense, but it's two extra button pushes for a button that's out of the way.
oh, didn't know that. Its halfways what I want; but primarily it just jumps paragraphs, and therefore doesn't come into the first / last 20 lines if its scrolleable.
I don't want to turn it off/on frequently. I want it to be like that generally.
Finally got around to hacking my PSP with custom firmware.
:D 20 minutes and some delecate configuring gets me a psp with a large amount of capability (including playing .iso backups of umd games, and playing open formats of video)
--
Stephen D King
Network Admin
Blurred Vizion Studios
outsider@blurredvizionstudios.com
Yes if the computer makes it obvious that there are better ways to do
things maybe we should do them. In this case, we should change our
writing to match grafitti, but until we do that, the machine should
conform to us, we shouldn't have to learn two.
...he writes to us, using a keyboard set up for QWERTY layout instead of ABCDEF layout. That layout was built in order to avoid getting hammer jams on the original mechanical typewriters. Why are you still using it?
(yes, we know, dothebart uses Dvorak, which isn't any more human than alphabetical order)