🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <14783@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> rudolf@satchmo.UUCP (Jim Rudolf) writes:

>In article <cZesptu00VsPQ2TvYm@andrew.cmu.edu> wjh+@andrew.cmu.edu 
>(Fred Hansen) writes:
>>On my favorite editor a click on the left button scrolls forward by the
>>distance between the top of the window and the place where I click.  A
>>click on the right button goes the other direction.  As a result, I can
>>leave the mouse in one place and move about the document.
>
>Sure, this is a convenient setup to have, but what do you suggest for
>folks like me who only use those types of editors occasionally and who
>for the life of us cannot remember which button scrolls which way?  Short
>of labelling the buttons, I don't know of any way to intuitively assoc-
>iate a button with a scrolling direction.

In our multifunctional cursor work, we would not assume that we could
figure out the "correct" or "intuitive" association of buttons with 
scrolling directions.  Instead, we'd put icons indicating scrolling
directions unambiguously in the cursor image (but only when the cursor
was in the scroll bar area).  These might look like this (as before, 
please pardon my character rendition of a graphical cursor):

         /\
       ///\\\
     /////\\\\\
  +----+----+----+
  |    |    |    |
  | /\ | \/ | P  |    (P might mean "move Proportionately ...")
  |    |    |    |
  +----+----+----+

(We'd also permit the user to rearrange the button functions
according to her or his preferences.)

This approach could also permit clear cuing of a double-click protocol, 
as well -- perhaps

         /\
       ///\\\
     /////\\\\\
  +----+----+----+
  |    |    |    |
  | /\ | \/ | B  |    (Single clicks -- line-oriented scrolling)
  |    |    |    |    (B = Beginning of Text)
 ++----+----+----++
 ||    |    |    ||
 || /\ | \/ | E  ||   (Double clicks -- page-oriented scrolling)
 || /\ | \/ |    ||   (E = End of Text)
 ||    |    |    ||
 |+----+----+----+|
 ++--------------++

But this would only make sense when the cursor was in the scrolling
area.  At other times -- e.g., when the cursor was in (one of the) 
work pane(s) of the application -- its button functions would be 
related to the domain of of that pane, and the button-specific icons 
would change to represent those (user-selected?) domain functionalities.

Style note:  I've drawn these cursor templates with the hot spot
at the top, as in most of our work.  But for scroll bar use, we might
prefer a more "modern" styled, side-pointing cursor shape, with the
hot spot at the upper right -- for example

     -----/
     ----/|
  +--+--+||
  |  |  |||
  +--+--+||
  |  |  |  
  +--+--+

Hmn, this _really_ looks much better in a graphic rendition; lets
try

     ......
     ......
  .........
  .  .  ...
  .........
  .  .  .
  .......


Michael Muller  Bellcore  444 Hoes Lane  Piscataway, N.J.  08854  US  
                ..!bellcore!ctt!michael  (201) 699 4892
                michael@bellcore.com
Michael Muller  Bellcore  444 Hoes Lane  Piscataway, N.J.  08854  US  
                ..!bellcore!ctt!michael  (201) 699 4892
                michael@bellcore.com