Your arm would get sore if you had to move it the distances on your screen, as well as holding it up in the air.
Remember: Use the right tool for the task! There is no one single "perfect" interface. Engelbart's team investigated dozens of devices for input. The mouse was simply the one that made it out.
I believe that you misunderstand Engelbart's point. In a talk he gave, he speaks about the correct interface for the task. For example, you don't want to drive your car by giving it speech commands.
"Okay, turn right...NOW! A little more! Speed up to 45...stop!"
What he's talking about is putting on a false layer of abstraction that doesn't really help the user become effective at the task. However, he's not advocating that we all use command line interfaces and TeX. If you're only going to do something a few times, it's not worth learning it. Engelbart is really advocating that you use the right tool and have the right training for your task. If that is a CLI, then that's fine. But it's not for everybody.
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Your arm would get sore if you had to move it the distances on your screen, as well as holding it up in the air.
Remember: Use the right tool for the task! There is no one single "perfect" interface. Engelbart's team investigated dozens of devices for input. The mouse was simply the one that made it out.
I believe that you misunderstand Engelbart's point. In a talk he gave, he speaks about the correct interface for the task. For example, you don't want to drive your car by giving it speech commands.
"Okay, turn right...NOW! A little more! Speed up to 45...stop!"
What he's talking about is putting on a false layer of abstraction that doesn't really help the user become effective at the task. However, he's not advocating that we all use command line interfaces and TeX. If you're only going to do something a few times, it's not worth learning it. Engelbart is really advocating that you use the right tool and have the right training for your task. If that is a CLI, then that's fine. But it's not for everybody.