Re: [9fans] scrollbar

[splite@purdue.edu]

On Thu, Mar 04, 2004 at 02:51:07PM -0700, andrey mirtchovski wrote:
> Bakul Shah <bakul@BitBlocks.com> wrote:
> > But why use a scrollbar?  Why move the mouse to

I don't, myself.  I turn 'em off on my terminal windows.

> > any edge if all you want to do is to show a
> > different part through a window?  Panning would be
> > so much easier (especially if combined with
> > increasing scroll/pan speed proportional to the
> > distance travelled by the mouse).

Panning is fine for small movements, but there's a tendency to overshoot
big movements because you can't see what's "coming up".  Perhaps if it
were combined with some sort of pop-up indicator of where you are in the
document.

The big problem is that panning doesn't allow for discontinuous movement.
Think of the difference between cassette tapes and compact discs when you
want to skip ahead two songs.

> i've run out of mouse buttons for panning in acme...  unless we do it
> with alt+button :)

Yep.  Meta key chords rule.

> we could go with gestures too -- a clockwise circle with the mouse
> scrolls up, counterclockwise scrolls down; the larger the circle the
> more you scroll (or the faster you rotate the mouse :).

Man, you think you have RSI trouble now...

> this will help touch-screen users since they won't have to hold up to
> 15 buttons at once while hitting the screen with the little pointy
> pen.

True, but they won't be able to see if they've scrolled far enough with
their hand in the way.  I think that's why jog dials were invented.