creat 1221

I don't believe that anyone has ever proposed that "straight" data entry is one of the tasks that is more efficiently done with a mouse.

Still, varying the physical tasks done by a data entry clerk is useful in managing the risk of RSI, so, with all due respect, I shall beg leave to wait to be convinced by objective studies rather than by your very engaging war stories. ("The plural of anecdote is not data.")

You are being blatantly unfair and throwing around the word "bullpoo" without sufficient cause. The relevant research is of course conducted by observing actual users, both new and experienced, and taking full advantage of their expertise in appropriate ways.

What developers need to learn -- or to be permitted by the PHBs to utilize their knowledge of -- is the fact that you can't design a user interface once, test it only on the developers, ship the prototype, and then expect the thing to asymptotically approach usability by rolling out even more unproven broken features in the next release. Pointing is not always better; typing is not always better -- and you don't find out which is better in a given situation by a combination of dogmatism, habit, guesswork, and wishful thinking.

-- Roland HutchinsonÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊWillÊplayÊviolaÊdaÊgambaÊforÊfood.

NB mail to my.spamtrap at verizon.net is heavily filtered to remove spam.ÊÊIfÊyourÊmessageÊlooksÊlikeÊspamÊIÊmayÊnotÊseeÊit.