I've just had a rather interesting idea...
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In a windowed working environment, one thing that, i think, slows me down a bit, is mouse accuracy. When I am clicking on, say, the Big X to close a window, in Windows - or the equivalent in any other OS, the X is small, my screen is large - so my mouse has to move a long way, then slow and stop accurately on the X. So how about this for an idea? Allow buttons (such as the X) to have a 'depth' and, possibly, a radius. Give the mouse pointer a property (call it 'weight') So, when the mouse pointer approaches the X, at distance Radius it starts to 'roll towards' the center of the X. Gently at first (so, a gravity-like effect, if you will). And once the mouse is within the radius, it would take more 'effort' to move it out. I reckon, with a bit of effort, it would be completely and utterly awesome. Which means someone has probably already done it! What do you think? Genius or Fool? And, now I've mentioned it publicly, does that mean I can't patent it?
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
Neat idea, though I'm not sure I'd like my mouse sinking into places and conflicing with my movements. I like mouse movement to be predictable according to my movements rather than invisible environmental variables. Instead, I'd like window elements to be attracted to the mouse. So as you approach the X button, it grows in size and gravitates toward the mouse pointer. Alternatively, you could create something like a magnifying glass effect. However, instead of a simple magnification within a circle, you create a logorithmic drop off, so the magnification slowly reduces the further away from the mouse cursor you see (instead of a constant 2x magnification). And rather than a simple magnification that overlays and covers up the adjacent parts of the screen, the rest of the view space could compress slightly to make room for the expanded/magnified area around the mouse. Think of it as a toned-down curvy circus mirror. To visualize this, this would be the bad version (with the magnification overlapping the normal space): bad (notice that you can't read some of the words) Here is the good version: good (some things shrink, others expand, nothing is hidden by something expanded). Also, this could be based on individual controls, rather than smoothly mangifying pixels. So the button might grow by 2x evenly (so the button doesn't look all curvy) and a label might grow by 1.5x evenly (so the text isn't all curvy). For controls that are very large (e.g., big labels), maybe those do have curves (or maybe just the individual words expand at different rates).
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In a windowed working environment, one thing that, i think, slows me down a bit, is mouse accuracy. When I am clicking on, say, the Big X to close a window, in Windows - or the equivalent in any other OS, the X is small, my screen is large - so my mouse has to move a long way, then slow and stop accurately on the X. So how about this for an idea? Allow buttons (such as the X) to have a 'depth' and, possibly, a radius. Give the mouse pointer a property (call it 'weight') So, when the mouse pointer approaches the X, at distance Radius it starts to 'roll towards' the center of the X. Gently at first (so, a gravity-like effect, if you will). And once the mouse is within the radius, it would take more 'effort' to move it out. I reckon, with a bit of effort, it would be completely and utterly awesome. Which means someone has probably already done it! What do you think? Genius or Fool? And, now I've mentioned it publicly, does that mean I can't patent it?
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
You've just reminded me of a piece of what we would probably now consider malware, but back then it was a load of fun to inflict on noobs. In the age of dinosaurs and Win95 (or maybe even 3.1?) there was a program that would intermittently pop up a kitten on screen and change the mouse cursor to an animated mouse. The kitten would then chase the mouse as you moved it. When it got bored (coffee break or think time) it would make the mouse cursor move just so the cat had something to chase. Listening in on the helpdesk was fun when a victim called and the helpdesk erk hadn't seen it. Cheers, Peter
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994.
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In a windowed working environment, one thing that, i think, slows me down a bit, is mouse accuracy. When I am clicking on, say, the Big X to close a window, in Windows - or the equivalent in any other OS, the X is small, my screen is large - so my mouse has to move a long way, then slow and stop accurately on the X. So how about this for an idea? Allow buttons (such as the X) to have a 'depth' and, possibly, a radius. Give the mouse pointer a property (call it 'weight') So, when the mouse pointer approaches the X, at distance Radius it starts to 'roll towards' the center of the X. Gently at first (so, a gravity-like effect, if you will). And once the mouse is within the radius, it would take more 'effort' to move it out. I reckon, with a bit of effort, it would be completely and utterly awesome. Which means someone has probably already done it! What do you think? Genius or Fool? And, now I've mentioned it publicly, does that mean I can't patent it?
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
not sure if you're aware of this already.. on a maximized window you can pretty much close a *maximized* window blindly by moving to the top-right edge of the screen. I think this was introduced in Vista, or maybe 7... the concept of 'infinite height' buttons. Your idea might work well though. Although I think mouse gestures are already quite popular..
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
CP article: SmartPager - a Flickr-style pager control with go-to-page popup layer.
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sounds like a good idea but......... the FPS player in me wants to call you a noob and tell you to learn to aim
Mate! I'll 1v1 you at HL2Dm any day of the week - but I don't spend 8 hours a day doing that!
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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killabyte didn't do it, so I WILL. YOU NOOB!! I could sweep your head with the mouse and >click< BOOM! Killed _Maxx_ +100 Headshot! +50
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave KreskowiakSee my response to him.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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In a windowed working environment, one thing that, i think, slows me down a bit, is mouse accuracy. When I am clicking on, say, the Big X to close a window, in Windows - or the equivalent in any other OS, the X is small, my screen is large - so my mouse has to move a long way, then slow and stop accurately on the X. So how about this for an idea? Allow buttons (such as the X) to have a 'depth' and, possibly, a radius. Give the mouse pointer a property (call it 'weight') So, when the mouse pointer approaches the X, at distance Radius it starts to 'roll towards' the center of the X. Gently at first (so, a gravity-like effect, if you will). And once the mouse is within the radius, it would take more 'effort' to move it out. I reckon, with a bit of effort, it would be completely and utterly awesome. Which means someone has probably already done it! What do you think? Genius or Fool? And, now I've mentioned it publicly, does that mean I can't patent it?
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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Mate! I'll 1v1 you at HL2Dm any day of the week - but I don't spend 8 hours a day doing that!
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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Not sure what you are puffing on this morning. What happens if the "x" is not the only thing on the screen and you have to move the mouse past these other things.
Peter Wasser Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. Frank Zappa
we're talking 'slight indentations' not friggin' black holes, here. If your mouse had force-feedback, you'd feel it bumping over the other controls, but they wouldn't be toooooo sticky. In fact, a clever programmer would probably decide not to even look at close-by objects when the mouse velocity was over a certain limit - so the gravitational pull wouldn't come into effect until you started to slow the mouse down.
pwasser wrote:
Not sure what you are puffing on this morning.
Prime ganja
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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_Maxxx_ wrote:
but I don't spend 8 hours a day doing that!
you dont have to lie here, you're amogst friends :-\
I'm not lying. It's more like 10 ;)
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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In a windowed working environment, one thing that, i think, slows me down a bit, is mouse accuracy. When I am clicking on, say, the Big X to close a window, in Windows - or the equivalent in any other OS, the X is small, my screen is large - so my mouse has to move a long way, then slow and stop accurately on the X. So how about this for an idea? Allow buttons (such as the X) to have a 'depth' and, possibly, a radius. Give the mouse pointer a property (call it 'weight') So, when the mouse pointer approaches the X, at distance Radius it starts to 'roll towards' the center of the X. Gently at first (so, a gravity-like effect, if you will). And once the mouse is within the radius, it would take more 'effort' to move it out. I reckon, with a bit of effort, it would be completely and utterly awesome. Which means someone has probably already done it! What do you think? Genius or Fool? And, now I've mentioned it publicly, does that mean I can't patent it?
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
Just use the keyboard (alt+f4, in this case) :)
- S 50 cups of coffee and you know it's on! Code, follow, or get out of the way.
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In a windowed working environment, one thing that, i think, slows me down a bit, is mouse accuracy. When I am clicking on, say, the Big X to close a window, in Windows - or the equivalent in any other OS, the X is small, my screen is large - so my mouse has to move a long way, then slow and stop accurately on the X. So how about this for an idea? Allow buttons (such as the X) to have a 'depth' and, possibly, a radius. Give the mouse pointer a property (call it 'weight') So, when the mouse pointer approaches the X, at distance Radius it starts to 'roll towards' the center of the X. Gently at first (so, a gravity-like effect, if you will). And once the mouse is within the radius, it would take more 'effort' to move it out. I reckon, with a bit of effort, it would be completely and utterly awesome. Which means someone has probably already done it! What do you think? Genius or Fool? And, now I've mentioned it publicly, does that mean I can't patent it?
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
So you have several windows on top of each other. Which one gets the black hole experience? Oh, the top one. But what if I don't want to close the top one, but the window just behind it, whose "X" is right above the "X" of the active window? Or, I don't want to close the window at all, just drag the mouse to another part of the screen, but all the black hole buttons keep sucking my mouse off track like it's a stumbling drunk. In other words, it would suck :laugh:
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Just use the keyboard (alt+f4, in this case) :)
- S 50 cups of coffee and you know it's on! Code, follow, or get out of the way.
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So you have several windows on top of each other. Which one gets the black hole experience? Oh, the top one. But what if I don't want to close the top one, but the window just behind it, whose "X" is right above the "X" of the active window? Or, I don't want to close the window at all, just drag the mouse to another part of the screen, but all the black hole buttons keep sucking my mouse off track like it's a stumbling drunk. In other words, it would suck :laugh:
Joe Woodbury wrote:
Which one gets the black hole experience? Oh, the top one. But what if I don't want to close the top one, but the window just behind it, whose "X" is right above the "X" of the active window?
Well, if you mean the X is sitting 'in front of' the X below (on the Z axis) - then no difference, you can't see it, you can't interact with it. If you mean it is aligned slightly higher on the Y axis, then the 'attraction' to the two should form a sort of w whape, so the mouse pointer would be attracted to whichever it is closest to.
Joe Woodbury wrote:
Or, I don't want to close the window at all, just drag the mouse to another part of the screen, but all the black hole buttons keep sucking my mouse off track like it's a stumbling drunk.
not a black hole, but a gentle gravitational attraction, probably affecting the mouse only when it is moving below a certain velocity.
Joe Woodbury wrote:
In other words, it would suck
Yes, it would suck the pointer into the required position with more accuracy.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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_Maxxx_ wrote:
In a windowed working environment, one thing that, i think, slows me down a bit, is mouse accuracy.
When I am clicking on, say, the Big X to close a window, in Windows - or the equivalent in any other OS, the X is small, my screen is large - so my mouse has to move a long way, then slow and stop accurately on the X.
So how about this for an idea?
Allow buttons (such as the X) to have a 'depth' and, possibly, a radius. Give the mouse pointer a property (call it 'weight')I think you're just too old to use a computer any more, hand it ovet to your son who has the physical coordination to use it.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
You're a cruel and heartless man, Mr. Martin. However, I should point out that we live in an aging population, so the inventor of technology to aid the elderly computer user is likely to be the winner in the long run.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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My idea was a generic one with a specific example.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
Yeah, and I think it's a good idea. I was just implying the keyboard is more precise and already implemented. I would call your feature "gravity". The only problem I see is that moving your mouse around the screen would be like trying to avoid black holes (or those sites that popup ads on keywords - I call them "Ad Mines"). Anyway, go for it!
- S 50 cups of coffee and you know it's on! Code, follow, or get out of the way.
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You've just reminded me of a piece of what we would probably now consider malware, but back then it was a load of fun to inflict on noobs. In the age of dinosaurs and Win95 (or maybe even 3.1?) there was a program that would intermittently pop up a kitten on screen and change the mouse cursor to an animated mouse. The kitten would then chase the mouse as you moved it. When it got bored (coffee break or think time) it would make the mouse cursor move just so the cat had something to chase. Listening in on the helpdesk was fun when a victim called and the helpdesk erk hadn't seen it. Cheers, Peter
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994.
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In a windowed working environment, one thing that, i think, slows me down a bit, is mouse accuracy. When I am clicking on, say, the Big X to close a window, in Windows - or the equivalent in any other OS, the X is small, my screen is large - so my mouse has to move a long way, then slow and stop accurately on the X. So how about this for an idea? Allow buttons (such as the X) to have a 'depth' and, possibly, a radius. Give the mouse pointer a property (call it 'weight') So, when the mouse pointer approaches the X, at distance Radius it starts to 'roll towards' the center of the X. Gently at first (so, a gravity-like effect, if you will). And once the mouse is within the radius, it would take more 'effort' to move it out. I reckon, with a bit of effort, it would be completely and utterly awesome. Which means someone has probably already done it! What do you think? Genius or Fool? And, now I've mentioned it publicly, does that mean I can't patent it?
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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In a windowed working environment, one thing that, i think, slows me down a bit, is mouse accuracy. When I am clicking on, say, the Big X to close a window, in Windows - or the equivalent in any other OS, the X is small, my screen is large - so my mouse has to move a long way, then slow and stop accurately on the X. So how about this for an idea? Allow buttons (such as the X) to have a 'depth' and, possibly, a radius. Give the mouse pointer a property (call it 'weight') So, when the mouse pointer approaches the X, at distance Radius it starts to 'roll towards' the center of the X. Gently at first (so, a gravity-like effect, if you will). And once the mouse is within the radius, it would take more 'effort' to move it out. I reckon, with a bit of effort, it would be completely and utterly awesome. Which means someone has probably already done it! What do you think? Genius or Fool? And, now I've mentioned it publicly, does that mean I can't patent it?
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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You're a cruel and heartless man, Mr. Martin. However, I should point out that we live in an aging population, so the inventor of technology to aid the elderly computer user is likely to be the winner in the long run.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
_Maxxx_ wrote:
You're a cruel and heartless man, Mr. Martin. However, I should point out that we live in an aging population, so the inventor of technology to aid the elderly computer user is likely to be the winner in the long run.
Yes, but I have plans to fix this in about 17 months time, when I neck Julia and smash any other Labor leader wannabe. Once I become Supremem Lifetime Leader of Australia, I'll fix this old people problem right prompt.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Quickest way to use action buttons like that? Alt+F4, Alt+Space/N and so on. And whatever the Mac/Linux equivalents are.
AS I REPLIED TO SOMEONE ELSE - THIS WAS A SPECIFIC EXAMPLE TO ILLUSTRATE A GENERIC IDEA I'm not asking how to do something, I'm making a suggestion of how something could be implemented. Many (and I would say probably the majority by a long way) users use the mouse despite there being shortcuts - and many programs have buttons, icons, sliders etc.etc. that don't have short cuts - so it was an idea to implement something in the OS to help.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
