Mouse Gestures in Javascript

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Posted by michael on Friday November 21, 2003 @02:23AM from the twitchy-finger dept.

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..."

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Browser Level == Better by dolo666 · 2003-11-21 02:25 · Score: 5, Interesting

I'm all for the idea of faster, better, stronger ways of browsing. I happen to think that mouse gestures and browser level code should be based in the browser, and controlled by the browser. Like look at all the gestures you get with Mozilla.

(mo: Don't invent the wheel: we have it already)

The problem I forsee with the jscript use, is a misuse of the mouse gesture jscripts by unethical sites. Because it's the planet Earth, and The Internet, half of the sites will impliment this correctly, the other half will use it as a joke, or for annoying adverts (browser interstitials) and thus cause the whole thing to be crap.

If it's at a browser level, websites can't fuck with it. So ideally, browsers will want to add the ability to block javascript mouse control, and promptly add this cool feature at a browswer level. I'm all for the idea of mousegestures, but I'm against the ability to tell a website to fuck off using them. (mo: KISS).
1. Re:Browser Level == Better by Zeinfeld · 2003-11-21 04:08 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  The problem I forsee with the jscript use, is a misuse of the mouse gesture jscripts by unethical sites.
  I think that is the problem with Jscript full stop. why netscape thought it a good idea to allow any site an almost arbitrary level of control over my browser is beyond me.
  The idea of doing mouse guestures or any other browser extension in JScript, except as a demo is idiotic. The whole value of these systems comes from consistency. Apple do know some things about UIs, the value in the Apple UI is that every program work the same way and you don't have to spend lots of time relearning.
  If I go to one site that has mouse guestures and then another that does not or worse implements them a different way ... yuk!
  But back to the original issue, Jscript sucks. The command set should be partitioned according to the security considerations. Popping up a window has a significant security impact, it can be used to launch a trojan. The toolbars on the browser window are my toolbars, no web site should be able to disable them.
  I use the feature of IE that allows Jscript to be turned off by default and enabled selectively site by site. But this is not as effective as it could be because you often come across idiotic sites using jscript for everything - including navigation. The idea being to force the site designers idea of a user interface down the user's throat.
  
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Insert code with proxy... by KrispyKringle · 2003-11-21 02:25 · Score: 5, Interesting

Or you could have your filtering proxy (like Proxomitron or Privoxy) insert the JavaScript code on every page. Though personally, I'd just use a browser that suppots it.
Re:Oh yay! by DeadSea · 2003-11-21 02:33 · Score: 5, Interesting

I tried some of the mouse gestures on that page and they conflict with other things for which I use the mouse. For example, try selecting a paragraph of text on the page. It activates one of the mouse gestures causing the page to scoll.
Really annoying.
Pie menus by Russ+Nelson · 2003-11-21 02:34 · Score: 4, Interesting

Actually ... mouse gestures are better implemented as Pie Menus.
-russ

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Why this is stupid. by cybermace5 · 2003-11-21 02:37 · Score: 4, Interesting

Honestly, it's a pretty stupid idea. Let me illustrate why: scroller mice. Once you get used to a scroll mouse, then you have to use a computer that just has a normal mouse, it's a major pain.

If you depend on every web page to implement mouse gestures, then you'll get this effect from page to page while you're browsing! It would be annoying to no end. And it's not an easily visible thing you can check for, unless each web page also uses some kind of cheesy "Gestures Enabled" logo. And each site might implement it differently, so that strokes mean different things from page to page. I repeat: stupid idea.

A user interface tool should be just that: part of the user interface. Just like a keyboard or mouse, gestures take time to become accustomed to. A user interface feature needs to act the same way no matter what you're doing.

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