[wellylug] window manager for one button mouse

Bret Comstock Waldow bwaldow at alum.mit.edu
Mon Oct 17 10:28:19 NZDT 2005


On Mon, 17 Oct 2005 07:59, David Antliff wrote:
> Bret Comstock Waldow wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I've got an IBM TransNote, which has a touchscreen that folds down over
> > the keyboard, so no keyboard access while using it folded.
> >
> > With the stylus, I can single and double click - no middle or right mouse
> > clicks.
> >
> > Is there a window manager that can be used without a right mouse buttion?
>
> Sounds like a Mac in disguise  :)

It's not.   www.transnote.us has pictures.

With the display lifted, there is a keyboard with a three-button Trackpoint 
(IBM Thinkpad standard).  There is a digitising pad that takes standard A4 or 
US Letter size paper pads, and uses a radio pen to track whatever you write, 
even when the computer is off, and uploads it to the computer when you turn 
it on again.

And the screen is a touchscreen (a gunze driver, apparently).  The pen has a 
push-to-radiate switch for the tracking radio, but that requires uncapping 
the pen and exposing the ink tip, which will scratch the touchscreen.  The 
pen also has plastic tips at the end and on the cap to use with the 
touchscreen without damaging it.

And no right mouse button.  There are three buttons at the right side of the 
screen - "Thinkpad", and a couple of others.  But I'm left handed, so in the 
long run, that won't do, as I'll be holding the folded computer in my right 
forearm-hand, and the buttons will be on the wrong side.

I'll be working out the touchscreen driver, and later the digitising pad 
support ("ThinkScribe"), so perhaps I'll just write a driver that uses 
gestures to bring up menus.  That allows me to use any window manager.

But in the meantime, it would be interesting to study any solution anyone else 
has come up with for interacting with a window manager that only uses one 
button.  And I don't have a Mac to try out.

Cheers,
Bret




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