Mouse Gestures in Javascript

christodd writes "I have become big fan of mouse gestures, a feature included in Opera, Mozilla, and MyIE2. There's even a plugin for IE. Other programs like StrokeIt and Cocoa Gestures are also based around the concept. I can't believe nobody else has thought of this before, but what about mouse gestures in javascript? Turns out that it is incredibly simple to implement, and really handy for those 'feature incomplete' web browsers. Unfortunately, for the total user experience, we'd have to upgrade the whole internet..."

Comments

FVWM

[Anonymous Coward]

dont forget fvwm, create your own mouse gestures, 'Strokes', and bind them to any action/command.

KICKS ASS.

Re:Accessability

[josephgrossberg]

Furthermore, if the mouse gestures are simple enough, they could be triggered accidentally by users who have no idea why the browser just sent them back to their home page, when they really meant to highlight some text.

KDE 3.2

[10Ghz]

In KDE 3.2 you can control the entire desktop with mouse-gestures, not just browser.

My first ooops...

[Dave21212]

My first ooops with javascript gestures: I tried to select/copy the text to send it to a few pals so that in case (more like when) it get's slashdotted they can read it. I selected the text at the top, pulled down and to the right, and the window closed (as it should).

It only took a few seconds to notice the status bar at the bottom which indicates if a gesture will be activated when you release the click... keep an eye on that when using using these. You can see if the gesture is 'blank' = it's not going to run an action. Quite handy, pretty cool. I've already grabbed the .js file !

Actually...

[interiot]

Actually... Mozilla's gestures *are* implemented in javascript. Download the Optimoz MozGest .xpi file (or find it on your hard drive), open the .xpi file in winzip, and there's all the .js implementation for it.

Re:Pie menus

[eggz128]

And Mozilla users can get an excellent pie menu extention here .

Browsing just doesnt feel right without it :)

Re:In other words == mo

[plumby]

The two aren't particularly equivalent - i.e. is short for id est - meaning "that is", or "that is to say".

Modus operandi, on the other hand, means "the way of working", not really applicable in your message.

Don't let Microsoft make you misuse your Latin abbreviations.
</pedant>

Re:Why this is stupid.

[cybermace5]

I'd also like to add that the submitter is merely spamming all of us with his own application. Check the email address. And he wants you to link to the JAR hosted by his site; is this another "make it popular and then charge for it" scheme?

You're right, but you're self-righteous

[ianscot]

In general I don't have much sympathy for RSI sufferers. (I was going to put sufferers in quotes, but thought better of it :-).

You're right that these "gestures" we're talking about do sound like exactly what the medical literature says causes RSI problems. Wrist-turning moves, over and over, are the basic cause of computer-related RSIs.

But your sample of one is a crock when it comes to dismissing everyone who has pain from this. Extremely useful "knowledge," that -- except all it does is arm you to dismiss other people and feel smug about not having been unlucky yourself. I used to work in bookstores in college, and some of the older clerks had RSI pain from shelving. Not something they were privileged to avoid in their jobs.

To think people are submitting articles to JAMA (003 Jun 11;289(22):2963-9 -- "Computer use and carpal tunnel syndrome: a 1-year follow-up study") trying to figure out whether carpal tunnel is associated with keyboards or mice or a combination. All we had to do was ask you and you could tell us it was a matter of being "reasonably careful." (Note -- those are quotes.)

Hey, guess what that study (and others) have indicated? It's mouse use, not the keyboard, that seems to be a main culprit. RSIs from computer use are almost always related to wrist movement. Trackballs (with a wrist rest especially) seem to be less problematic. Hmm, maybe we could use this information to prevent other people from undergoing a lot of pain, encourage trackballs instead... Oh, sorry, we don't have any sympathy for those people, 'cause they injure themselves out of a lack of common sense. No need to publish medical recommendations to guide businesses in their purchasing, for example. Morons. Let 'em "suffer."

You're right, you don't get it.

[freeweed]

Don't pick some of the more obtuse and complicated mouse gestures and then say "Hey, this sucks!" Of course you wouldn't like them if they were all like that!

I can't speak for Moz, as I haven't used it with gestures much, so this is Opera-related:

I'll tell you why mouse gestures rule. Page navigation. I tend to flip back and forth between pages a LOT, especially on sites like Slashdot. Click into a story, check out some comments, read a sub-comment, go back to the main story comments, go forward to see if I've read it correctly, go back, etc.

In Opera, going back and forth is a simple right-click and drag left or right, to go backwards and forwards in history respectively. MUCH nicer than constantly having to move mouse up the the back button, click. Move mouse down to comment link, click. Move mouse up to the back button, click.

Now, there may be keyboard shortcuts for back and forth than some people find handy, but for me, those 2 mouse gestures alone are like a scroll wheel. I'd never live without, and when forced to, it really, really sucks.

Re:"next page" tag in HTML?

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't need to imagine. It's been in HTML 4 spec for ages:
<LINK REL="next" HREF="url">
<LINK REL="prev" HREF="url">
So you should focus on learning and using existing standard instead of whining.

Reread what I wrote.

[Inoshiro]

" (your server MUST check input, forget about doing that in javascript)."

"(such as making web forms "smarter" about doing a first check before submitting it [since it costs more CPU/transfer time for the server to do it, this saves modem users the pain of a typo returning an error page],"

I did not say "Don't ever check on the server side." I said, "additional checking which allows users on slow links to not be punshed for typos that can be corrected by a little client-side scripting."

More checks are better than fewer.