Re: New start up splash screen annoyance...

[David Reitter]

On 25 Sep 2007, at 19:38, Drew Adams wrote:

> The doc everywhere uses `mouse-1'
> etc.,

That is indeed a problem! It should be consistent across the board.

> and that nomenclature is clear. There is absolutely nothing to be
> gained by changing to `left' etc.

No, it is not clear. A typical user has two mouse buttons. It is  
absolutely not obvious that the right mouse button is mapped to mouse-3.

> On the contrary: `mouse-1' is just an identifier; it signifies  
> nothing about
> physical button location. `Left' implies a spatial relation that  
> might not
> be correct.

It will be correct unless the user has remapped it, in which case  
they'd know.
Actually, I think "click" and "right click"/"secondary click" would  
be good, too, because mouse-1 is usually the default, no matter  
whether the user is a leftie. (Remember that on Macs, there is no  
right mouse button - control-click is used instead!)

If the user customizes this in Emacs, I presume we don't display  
`mouse-n', but the actual binding, right? Or is that tooltip hardcoded?

But while we are debating whether to call it mouse-1 and -3, I'd like  
to point out that a good UI will normally do what is most obvious and  
what the user expects. That means that the right mouse button should  
bring up a context menu and not delete something - this is the  
standard on most systems and platforms, I believe.

At least on the Mac and on Windows, the middle mouse-button is mapped  
centrally to something else. I have it mapped to a double-click.

Applications interpret a left click to set the text cursor, mark text  
(dragging), activate/toggle buttons and follow links. The secondary  
mouse button always brings up a context menu - I can't think of a  
common application that doesn't do that (except Emacs).
Double-clicks open or start things, usually in a new frame or window.  
I don't know what it means in the context of Emacs. One thing it  
translates to is showing *Messages* on double-click in the echo area,  
not on a simple mouse-1 (which can happen by chance occasionally).

Doing something such as closing a window requires clicking on an  
explicit closer button. The idea to have that in the mode-line was,  
thus, a good one, even though it'll close the window above and not  
below (the button that is displayed can make that clear graphically).