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10 finger multi-touch UI designed to replace the mouse

10gui.com

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Re: 10 finger multi-touch UI designed to replace the mouse

#101

Post by andrewtj »

sid0 wrote: post #93
andrewtj wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully, it seems like every time I see this comment it's from a Windows power user who's not that familiar with OS X - can you please provide an example?

Lock the computer.

No default. On my computer it was Ctl-F8, Ctl-L which was setup using the built-in Keyboard short configuration tool. Most of the time I just used hot corners though. That said, I no longer work in an environment where I need that kind of functionality so that combination no longer works.

Re: 10 finger multi-touch UI designed to replace the mouse

#102

Post by andreyf »

deyan wrote: post #94
andreyf wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, OSX has much better thought-out keyboard shortcuts than Windows does. A simple example: you'd like to force-kill the focused application. In OSX, you type command-option-esc (one hand), return, return (other hand). I don't know what it is in Vita, but in XP, it would require quite a bit of mousework.

Did you (all of you not just andreyf) seriously manage to degrade the discussion on the GUI into a OSX vs. Windows debate? Or perhaps my expectations are just way too high..

Sorry :(

Re: 10 finger multi-touch UI designed to replace the mouse

#103

Post by andrewtj »

joe_the_user wrote: post #99
andrewtj wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off the top of my head: alt-tab == ⌘-tab Restore == Ctl-F3, arrow key to window in Dock, return Arbitrary menu item, depends: Application Menu (left-handside text menus) == Ctl-F2, type enough unique letters to identify the menu (or use arrow keys), return, type enough unique letters to identify the item... repeat till you get to the item you want. If this annoys you, you can implement your own keyboard shortcuts in…

A few keys to get to a few menu items really doesn't work since you have to remember them. In windows, you can use the alt key to both arrow through the menu AND to learn the specific hot-keys. Plus I actually suspect that a many application don't implement the keys you've mentioned since I was definitely at-sea in my efforts to use any keys. But thanks, I'll have more ammunition the next time I'm stuck Osx-land.

Actually, the keyboard shortcuts do work; I'm pretty comfortable saying that since I use the OS everyday. Also, your suspicions are wrong - every native application implements these shortcut keys.

Don't take this the wrong way, but Windows skills don't translate to other platforms. OS X will feel different, weird and limited if you're not familiar with it as it doesn't do things the way you're used to.

To be honest, I rarely use most of these shortcut keys because I define my own.

A basic example is that it's two keys to start a VPN session on my machine as that's something I do frequently.

A more complicated one is as at the moment I'm doing work on a site that includes screenshots of itself, I have a shortcut key defined that takes a series of screen grabs from different pages in Safari at the appropriate size, converts them to PNG and sticks them in the appropriate folder. Huge time saver.

In short, it seems to me OS X can do anything with a keyboard shortcut that you'd like it to.

Re: 10 finger multi-touch UI designed to replace the mouse

#104

Post by andrewtj »

deyan wrote: post #94
andreyf wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, OSX has much better thought-out keyboard shortcuts than Windows does. A simple example: you'd like to force-kill the focused application. In OSX, you type command-option-esc (one hand), return, return (other hand). I don't know what it is in Vita, but in XP, it would require quite a bit of mousework.

Did you (all of you not just andreyf) seriously manage to degrade the discussion on the GUI into a OSX vs. Windows debate? Or perhaps my expectations are just way too high..

Straw, camel back... sorry

Keep expectations high and the community will self-correct.

Re: 10 finger multi-touch UI designed to replace the mouse

#105

Post by elblanco »

andreyf wrote: post #47
joe_the_user wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but his problem actually points to this being a problem for anyone. It becomes a problem when the machine requires all of my dexterity just to accomplish a given task. I dislike all Apple products specifically because they require mouse operations to accomplish things where Linux and MS interfaces tend to have keyboard shortcuts.

In my experience, OSX has much better thought-out keyboard shortcuts than Windows does. A simple example: you'd like to force-kill the focused application. In OSX, you type command-option-esc (one hand), return, return (other hand). I don't know what it is in Vita, but in XP, it would require quite a bit of mousework.

in XP, I dunno if there is a quick way. But Ctrl+shift+ESC brings up Task Manager. Arrow down to the task you want to kill. Hit the other crazy menu key that MS added to keyboards (the one between the right Alt and Ctrl whatever it's called) and choose how you want to kill the task, hit enter.

Other than the arrowing down bit, it's about the same.

Re: 10 finger multi-touch UI designed to replace the mouse

#106

Post by dkersten »

zandorg wrote: post #92
stcredzero wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get hold of a Win2K disk image and put it in VirtualBox. (No details given, but you should be able to get one, plus install key for, ahem , cheap.) You can connect the virtual image to the USB device. You might need one of the service packs to get USB to work, however.

I don't know what that is, but you could use a MIDI pedal and hook it up with some controller software!

Actually, thats not a bad idea.

I once wrote a python program to trigger callback functions when specific keys on my MIDI keyboard are pressed. The MIDI protocol was surprisingly simple to figure out (for simple things like "button-x was pressed at 25% pressure" anyway). It had a learning mode where you assign a key by pressing it and an action mode where pressing the assigned keys would trigger functions to be called.

I had intended to use it as a shortcut panel to run a shell scripts, but never actually finished it.. might do so sometime soon :-)

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