On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:31:14 -0500, Nick Sabalausky <a@a.a> wrote:

> "Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:op.v8nbixzyeav7ka@localhost.localdomain...
>>
>> I must rave about the trackpad on the macbook pro.  The interface is so
>> damned good, I hate going back to my linux laptop (which I must do for
>> work).
>>
>
> A good trackpad?!? That seems difficult to believe. Whenever I use a laptop,
> I just grab/carry-around a trackball (or at least a mouse). I can barely use
> those touchpad things, and IBM's "clitmouse" is only a little bit better.

It's freaking cool.  The best part is the scrolling.  On my dell laptop, I have to use the right side of the touchpad to scroll.  With the track pad, I just use 2 fingers, and it scrolls, no matter where I am on the pad.

Click with 2-fingers, and it's a right-click.

There are a bunch of multi touch gestures.  Like 5-finger pinch brings up the app launcher (kind of like iPad home screen), 5-finger "explode" shows desktop, 4 finger swipe up brings up the window chooser (kind of like alt-tab).

It's completely accurate, I haven't yet had it misinterpret how many fingers I'm using.  I find that kind of amazing given how shitty touch screens used to be.

It is a little unnerving at first, I was thinking "where the fuck are the buttons?!"

The only complaint I have is that at the top of the pad, it's very hard to click.

-Steve

"Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:op.v8nti0dheav7ka@localhost.localdomain...
> On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:31:14 -0500, Nick Sabalausky <a@a.a> wrote:
>
>> "Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:op.v8nbixzyeav7ka@localhost.localdomain...
>>>
>>> I must rave about the trackpad on the macbook pro.  The interface is so damned good, I hate going back to my linux laptop (which I must do for work).
>>>
>>
>> A good trackpad?!? That seems difficult to believe. Whenever I use a
>> laptop,
>> I just grab/carry-around a trackball (or at least a mouse). I can barely
>> use
>> those touchpad things, and IBM's "clitmouse" is only a little bit better.
>
> It's freaking cool.  The best part is the scrolling.  On my dell laptop, I have to use the right side of the touchpad to scroll.  With the track pad, I just use 2 fingers, and it scrolls, no matter where I am on the pad.
>
> Click with 2-fingers, and it's a right-click.
>
> There are a bunch of multi touch gestures.  Like 5-finger pinch brings up the app launcher (kind of like iPad home screen), 5-finger "explode" shows desktop, 4 finger swipe up brings up the window chooser (kind of like alt-tab).
>
> It's completely accurate, I haven't yet had it misinterpret how many fingers I'm using.  I find that kind of amazing given how shitty touch screens used to be.
>
> It is a little unnerving at first, I was thinking "where the fuck are the buttons?!"
>
> The only complaint I have is that at the top of the pad, it's very hard to click.
>

But how is just the basic "moving the pointer" compared to other touchpads? That's the only problem I ever had with them (Well, that and accidentally "clicking" with my palm while trying to type). The physical buttons always worked fine for me, I've never been much a fan of gestures anyway.

On Monday, 23 January 2012 at 18:17:45 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 1/23/2012 6:42 AM, Don Clugston wrote:
>> And all those apps made with some Borland toolkit, where 'exit' is an icon of a
>> door, with an arrow in it.
>>
>> Makes me feel like I'm playing Pictionary.
>>
>> At a previous job, we got new desk telephones. They had 8 function keys, each
>> with an icon which was completely incomprehensible. We gave the icons names:
>> "two heads are better than one", "fall asleep on book", "hand holding an arrow",
>> etc. We never worked out what any of them were for.
>>
>> The brand of phone was called "Easy". We wondered if they had a more advanced
>> model with more difficult icons: "Mastered Alcatel Easy? Try Alcaltel Fiendishly
>> Difficult!"
>
> I've succumbed on occasion to iconitis, too. Take a look at the D web site! I even bought a CD of 50,000 icons. I still could not find an icon that clearly means "download". I suspect that one does not exist.

How about these?

http://images.google.com/search?q=download&tbm=isch&tbs=isz:i

On 1/25/2012 2:27 PM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:
> How about these?
>
> http://images.google.com/search?q=download&tbm=isch&tbs=isz:i

You're in a maze of twisty passages, all different.

On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 3:31 PM, Nick Sabalausky <a@a.a> wrote:
> "Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:op.v8nbixzyeav7ka@localhost.localdomain...
>>
>> I must rave about the trackpad on the macbook pro.  The interface is so damned good, I hate going back to my linux laptop (which I must do for work).
>>
>
> A good trackpad?!? That seems difficult to believe. Whenever I use a laptop, I just grab/carry-around a trackball (or at least a mouse). I can barely use those touchpad things, and IBM's "clitmouse" is only a little bit better.
>
>

YES, I'm not the only person alive using a trackball! Thumb-ball, marble, or one of those giant pool-ball things?

> YES, I'm not the only person alive using a trackball! Thumb-ball,
> marble, or one of those giant pool-ball things?

you both are not alone. i'm also a trackball user for 11 years now. atm i have a logitech trackman on my desk but owned one of those billiard balls in the past, too.

"Andrew Wiley" <wiley.andrew.j@gmail.com> wrote in message news:mailman.40.1327562674.25230.digitalmars-d@puremagic.com...
>On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 3:31 PM, Nick Sabalausky <a@a.a> wrote:
>> "Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:op.v8nbixzyeav7ka@localhost.localdomain...
>>>
>>> I must rave about the trackpad on the macbook pro. The interface is so damned good, I hate going back to my linux laptop (which I must do for work).
>>>
>>
>> A good trackpad?!? That seems difficult to believe. Whenever I use a
>> laptop,
>> I just grab/carry-around a trackball (or at least a mouse). I can barely
>> use
>> those touchpad things, and IBM's "clitmouse" is only a little bit better.
>>
>
>YES, I'm not the only person alive using a trackball! Thumb-ball, marble, or one of those giant pool-ball things?

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Trackman-Wheel-Optical-Silver/dp/B00005NIMJ

(I don't know why the price there is so high, though. They're only around $35-ish in stores.)

I absolutely love it. It's my primary pointing device on *any* of my computers.

Around 5-10 years ago I started getting wrist pain. I heard that trackballs were better for the wrist than mice, so I got one (this logitech one). It was really awkward the first, but I got used to it after a couple days. After two weeks it felt 100% as natural as a mouse, even for games. (Touchpads, by contrast, I was never able to get past the "really awkward" stage, even after several years with the laptop I used to have). And I haven't been having any more wrist pain since.

I don't even like actual mice all that much anymore (They need so much more surface area! And so much more movement. The trackball is just - ZIP! Awesome :) ).

On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:16:19 -0500, Nick Sabalausky <a@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

On 1/26/12 4:06 PM, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> […]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?

Fn + Backspace, on my Macbook Pro.

David

On Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:20:38 -0500, David Nadlinger <see@klickverbot.at> wrote:

> On 1/26/12 4:06 PM, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
>> […]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?
>
> Fn + Backspace, on my Macbook Pro.

Thank you :)  I will try it next time I use my macbook pro.  And I forgot about that Fn key!  Though that's pretty much standard on most laptops these days.

-Steve