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Programming Businesses Apple IT Technology

Enabling Mouse Gestures for Cocoa Apps 36

Posted by pudge from the i-have-trouble-remembering-my-own-name-sometimes dept.
Buhaina writes "One Gerd Knops has released version 1.0 of his Cocoa Gestures software, enabling Cocoa applications to use mouse gestures for activating common commands. This is very similar to the OptiMoz project for Mozilla and can be activated on a per-application basis."
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Enabling Mouse Gestures for Cocoa Apps More

Enabling Mouse Gestures for Cocoa Apps

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  • Mixed results (Score:4, Informative)

    by arson1 ( 527855 ) on Tuesday October 22, 2002 @08:48AM (#4503763) Homepage
    I've had these installed for a while and some seem useful, I've also noticed them not always working and/or slowing my machine down. I'd like a system-wide set of gestures for minimizing windows, etc, but this is for individual cocoa apps only.

  • allow me to be the first... (Score:4, Funny)

    by JohnKFisher ( 518955 ) <johnkfisher&mac,com> on Tuesday October 22, 2002 @09:10AM (#4503913) Homepage Journal
    Yeah, but with only one mouse button... how useful can gestures on a Mac BE?

    ((Figured I'd get it out of the way before the Mac-bashers got here ;-) ))

  • standards (Score:4, Insightful)

    by tarzan353 ( 246515 ) on Tuesday October 22, 2002 @09:15AM (#4503965)
    I think it is very necessary to define common patterns for widely used functions, less every developer set up his own set, which obviously would cause confusion among users.

    Ultimately, a database where developers can "register" their gestures for functions, much like the file type/creator database for "classic" apps, is needed. Then developers can make sure that they're doing the Right Thing.
    • I think it is very necessary to define common patterns for widely used functions, less every developer set up his own set, which obviously would cause confusion among users.

      The good thing is that the gesture resulting from that confusion is pretty universal and standard.

  • versioning (Score:3, Funny)

    by L. VeGas ( 580015 ) on Tuesday October 22, 2002 @09:39AM (#4504178) Homepage Journal
    "One Gerd Knops has released version 1.0"

    In related news, two Gerd Knops released version 2.0

  • no thanks (Score:3, Insightful)

    by penguin_punk ( 66721 ) on Tuesday October 22, 2002 @11:21AM (#4505021) Journal
    I've tried the mouse gestures for Moz and loved it. .... for the first two minutes!!!!!

    I can't tell you how many times I had about 6 tabs open and then mozilla shits itself and closes. The 'gesture' for closign a window was WAY to normal for me. Same with going back, or scrolling, or flipping through tabs or.... ANYTHING! I never realized how often I moved the mouse while browzing. I hold my place with the mouse pointer, and I follow through long lines of code with the pointer. If you do this too, then DON'T USE GESTURES!!
    end bitching.
    • um, so you move the mouse AND hold down the proper key/mouse button accidentally to trigger the gesture command?
        • why the fuck are you holding down a modifier key if you don't want to do a gesture?

          • Re:no thanks (Score:2, Interesting)

            by penguin_punk ( 66721 )
            habit. I had no idea I did so many awkward gestures with my hands while reading web pages [instert persian kitty joke here], but after installing mouse gestures for Mozilla, my subconscious twitching became very apparent to me. It's just not what I wanted. I am aware that I could have changed my modifierkey, etc. but it wasn't worth it. I find that with an optical mouse (with a scroll button), I can navigate fast enough that I didn't require mouse gestures to provide me with shortcuts.

            If you like and use gestures, then kudos, but it was just plain awkward. albeit it will get easier after I use it for a while and don't have to think about moving the mouse in a certain way, I'm fine the way I am right now.

            Sincerely,

            Me.
            • I guess I didn't consider the fact that some people hold down keys while browsing. I move my mouse all around too, just a habit. And I too find the mutli-button/scroll wheel mouse better for browsing, but I've gotten used to gestures from using the marking-menus/gestures in Power Animator/Maya.

    • CocaGestures can do that different... (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Hi,

      With CocoaGestures you can have the same gesture do two different things, depending on which menu items are enabled. You cann assign the same gesture to close a tab AND close a window, making sure the close tab one is higher in the list. Now the same gesture will close a tab IF a tab is displayed, otherwise it will close the window.

      End of your problem...

      Gerd
    • then mozilla shits itself

      What would be the univarsal gesture for that ?

      Fist in the air and pulling down 3 times while making protty sounds ?

    • Re:no thanks (Score:2, Informative)

      by wirelessbuzzers ( 552513 )
      Well, you have to have some activation for the gestures. So you can't trigger them by accident unless you set a stupid modifier (like button 1). Having a 2-button mouse+wheel (native support in OS X!!!), I bound "gesture" to the wheel button, and haven't screwed up yet because I never press the wheel for other reasons.

  • compatibility issues (Score:4, Interesting)

    by harveyswik ( 592377 ) on Tuesday October 22, 2002 @02:03PM (#4506462)
    Unlike Mozilla this requires a modifier to turn the Gesture engine making it difficult to accidentally Quit/Go Back/Restart, etc. Unfortunately, I can't get it to recognise my Intellimouse even with all features turned off. Now, if I have to reach for the keyboard it's not much use is it? That's what I was attempting to avoid in the first place.

    Last Gripe: It only has four recognised movements - up, down, left, right. It would be *much* more usefull if it could tell the difference between say left-down-right-up and a circle starting at pi/4 or between left-down and a diagonal slice up and to the right at an angle of 45+/-10 degrees.

    Then again, it's *free* and it's easy to learn. ::shrugs::

    • Right, it worked well with the two Apple mice (puck and optical) I have for the few moments they weren't hanging on the wall. My trouble with the Intellimouse is that Cocoa Gestures won't recognize any of the buttons no matter how I set the prefs. I even attempted to have the wheel button represent a modifier (control-shift) with no luck.
    • weird. Works perfectly with the wheel button on my Logitech mouse (has only 2 buttons + wheel, but good enough for me). Blame Microsoft as usual, I guess. However, I agree that more directions would be useful, if hard to pull off. I mean, if you make their G thing, do you really make right-hand turns?
  • If only Apple would fix drag gestures in NSLayoutManager, especially drag down on the left side versus the right side.
  • Found a bag of M&M's the other day that had been chewed into. Finally caught the mouse, though.

    But I can see how a gesture based UI would have made the bag easier to get into...

  • Graphics pad based commercial technology (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fbrehm ( 136312 ) on Tuesday October 22, 2002 @08:32PM (#4509579)
    The bitart consulting page says "It is unclear where the notion of gestures first appeared. Most sources mention them in combination with experimental pie menu implementation in the 1970s."


    My first introduction to a technology like this was in the commercial Applicon CAD system used by some people I used to work with in the mid 70's. The system was introduced by Applicon in the early 70's.


    If you do a google search for "applicon command pattern recognition" the first couple of articles are interesting. "The operator would sketch a symbol on a tablet, such as a square, and the system would interpret this to mean that it should zoom into the selected area on the CRT screen." It used a graphics pad instead of a mouse and ran on a PDP-11/45!


    I downloaded the Mouse Gestures software. Let's see if it is the equal of that 30-year old stuff! :-)



    Fred

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