Tuesday, January 15, 2002 |
10:52 - Mac the Mouse
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Here's a random tidbit that I should remember to mention when I'm trying to explain to someone about the fundamental design concepts of the Mac:
The mouse is designed to be attached to the keyboard. Always has been. Back in the earliest days when ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) was the norm, the keyboard connected to the computer, and the mouse connected to the keyboard. The cords could plug into either side of the keyboard for handedness flexibility. And the cords were short, so they wouldn't tangle, but you had the mouse's whole vicinity for its range of motion. (In fact, early Mac keyboards and mice had coiled cables like telephone cords, so you could stretch them far from the machine if you wanted to, but they would gather themselves back up neatly if you didn't.) The same thing is true today, except that USB has replaced ADB; Mac keyboards have two USB plugs so you can connect your mouse however you feel most comfortable. And if you don't want to use up a keyboard USB plug, the monitors have USB hubs too, and you get the same benefits.
But on the PC, most mice are still serial, and they connect to the PC case via a long, slender serial cable. In fact, even USB mice are the same way, because most PC USB keyboards don't have hub ports, and certainly nobody is designing them for the purpose of ergonomic placement of your mouse. The upshot is that if your PC is kept under your desk, your mouse cord trails off and disappears over the edge of your desk, and at the bottom of its loop it gets tangled and weighed down by other cords, and your mouse tends to migrate away toward the back of your desk, and you're always tugging it back to you.
This is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. A PC gives you all the parts that normally make a computer, but provide no help in actually making them all work together. The benefit the Mac gives you is that all the details of ergonomics have been taken into account; comfort doesn't end at the boundaries of each individual component.
Oh, and I won't get into the "one-button mouse" argument... except to note that at least with one button, left-handers aren't at a disadvantage over right-handers.
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