Preston Crawford me@prestoncrawford.com wrote:
Does anyone here use a multi-button (as in more than 2) mouse with Linux?
The late '60s first "modern mouse" (a ball design driving perpenducular axis) had 3 buttons. In fact, the inventor was so ahead of his time, he also invented the 5-chord keyboard so you could input any keystroke without having to use the QWERTY keyboard (unless you were typing at full speed -- which you wouldn't be using the mouse at the same time).
[ SIDE NOTE: Imagine if he had established the 5-chord like the 10-key numeric pad -- we wouldn't have all those varying and non-standard gamepad controllers,. ;-]
The early '70s Xerox PARC Alto had 3 buttons.
And early '80s X-Window system begin with and still _requires_ 3 buttons (even if you just emulate the 3rd button with 2). ;->
More recent X-Window releases have supported 5 or 7 buttons.
How well supported are they?
I always scoffed in the early '90s when I plugged in a Logitech 3-button to Linux and I instantly had full 3 button support. It wasn't until Windows 98 before Microsoft started including 3 button support without having to load additional software.
I've had to get one recently for work.
A 3-button mouse? You mean you've been using 2-button mice?
I was diagnosed with CTS and I now wear braces and use a wireless Intellimouse.
"Wheel" mice were easily adapted as 5-button mice. Button 2 (3rd button) is when the wheel is depressed (just like any 3-button mice). Button 3 and 4 (4th and 5th buttons) are mapped as the up/down of the secondary Y axis (secondary to the Y-axis in the ball/optical).
Most modern mice have native drivers in XFree86-4/Xorg-6.7 that can read variable rate and other, more "rich" feedback.
Works great at work with Windows, but I'm unsure how much, if any support there is for Linux.
Intellimice will be recognized immediately in any modern Linux distribution. Not only for X, but for console (e.g., gpm) as well.
Anyone have experience with this?
Been using 3 button mice in Linux since I started in 1993. I mapped buttons in X for a few 5 and 7 button digitizers before any wheel mice ever came out.
The X-Window system has always had extremely flexible input options. Especially since X is designed for multiuser/multidevice (multiple input/output devices) on a system.