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Aucbvax.2289 fa.works utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!works Wed Jul 15 05:07:06 1981 Re: Collected commentary on touchpanels >From Joe.Newcomer@CMU-10A Wed Jul 15 05:05:16 1981 What's wrong with light pens? The same thing that is wrong with the standard pen that comes with the Summagraphics Bit Pad One: you've got to pick the damn thing up! I went nearly crazy trying to use an editor for two weeks with my Bit Pad, because the editor ONLY accepted cursor motion thru the tablet and the ONLY device I had for pointing was the pen! One of the worst- designed systems I ever used. After two weeks, the 4-button mouse came in, and most of the headaches went away, but I still had to keep taking my hands off the keyboard for the smallest cursor motions. Now we have an EMACS like editor that accepts cursor movement and positioning commands from the keyboard or tablet, and it is really nice; small relative motions can be done quickly from the keyboard and large dragging motions can be done with the tablet; I find the system quite friendly.

(As an aside, pens seem to be predicated on the idea that holding a writing implement is a "natural" action and comfortable. I've never found holding a pen comfortable, and have always preferred to type rather than write. I write almost nothing; if it is worth commiting to an medium outside my brain, I type it into the computer!) joe

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