h a l f b a k e r yThe mutter of invention.
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This would be good when you got used to it, but to
begin with it might be confusing or distracting.
Also, why just one "mirrored" pointer in addition to
the "real" one? |
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How about having not just two pointers, but
thousands of them spread evenly across the
screen. They would all be invisible, except for the
one currently being used. If you wanted to switch to
another pointer that was closer to your
destination, you could just click on it and it would
become visible. |
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Or have the pointer behave like the spaceship on
Asteroids - if it disappears off the left of the screen,
it reappears on the right; if it goes off the bottom, it
appears at the top. |
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So why did I read Mirrored House? |
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//like the spaceship on Asteroids// Excellent idea. You could do away with the mouse or trackpad altogether and just use the left / right / thrust keys to control the pointer's position on screen. Presumably space would count as a click. |
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As someone who has tried that idea, along with several variations, I can say that it very quickly becomes infuriating. Even with separate controls for scrolling, just browsing a website is a continuous struggle. |
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// I can say that it very quickly becomes infuriating // |
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Was that in regard to the original idea, the wrap-around
idea, or the idea of controlling your pointer using
left/right/thrust. |
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Incidentally, if you want to try a wrap around
implementation, you can use a program called Synergy.
Its main purpose is to to act as a keyboard/mouse for a
second computer, but it also can implement wrap-around
on the local PC. l used it with wrap-around for quite a
while. |
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[MaxwellBuchanan], I believe we already have thousands
of them. The point is that we want to access them by
avoiding to click them. |
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// I can say that it very quickly becomes infuriating // |
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Uhh, [mitxela], I guess it would be very easy to
implement such program, and verify your claims. |
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I was referring to the asteroids idea (left/right/thrust). |
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There's a program called GlovePIE which is all about enabling unusual input methods, and makes this sort of thing very easy. |
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Mirror mirror on the screen,
who's the closest to the scene? |
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Isn't that like using a wormhole? |
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I did once try to point at book on a desk with the mouse.
Hilarity ensued, as the cursor obviously couldn't point at
something outside the screen. It's me age. |
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//Asteroids//
Toroidal boundary conditions USED to be an easily-available
feature in Windows (early/mid '90s, IIRC) but as with most
useful functions, it has been removed... |
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