5 ms·

It's easy to discover when there are only two buttons on your mouse. If it had one and pressing strongly did something else, you'd be right.

stuartd 7y ago
Originally of course there was only one mouse button, and you would ctrl-click for the context menu
- ryanbrunner 7y ago
  Two button mice were for sure the standard on non-Macintosh PCs well before Windows was in popular usage.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
    And 3 wasn't rare, I think.
- kps 7y ago
  Originally, yes, there was one¹. But three were used quite soon after.² ¹ https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/350 https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/3... ² https://youtu.be/yJDv-zdhzMY https://youtu.be/yJDv-zdhzMY
GeekyBear 7y ago
It's just as easy to press harder "force touch" as it is to right click. Sorry, but the Windows 95 user interface had the exact same discoverability issue.
- egeozcan 7y ago
  Um, ease of use has little to do with discoverability. Two buttons are there in front of you.
- soylentgraham 7y ago
  Opening a Context menu was never a destructive action though, so you could click that other button on your mouse all day without risk. You have to be taught that a context menu exists once, but it's safe & consistent from then on
  - GeekyBear 7y ago
    Force touching an item to see if there is a contextual menu isn't a destructive action. That doesn't change the fact that neither interface gives you a way to know in advance which items have associated contextual menus.
    - franga2000 7y ago
      But if you "hard-press" a button that doesn't support hard-pressing, won't it just detect a normal press? Depending on what the button is, that might be destructive or at the very least time-consuming.
      - GeekyBear 7y ago
        Newbie Windows 95 users would quite frequently hide the entire start bar because they accidentally moved the mouse while trying to click on an item, and the system interpreted that as a drag intended to resize the start bar to a zero height. At that point they could no longer use their computer at all until they got external help.
        gsich 7y ago
        You still see a small bar even with "zero" height.
        zapzupnz 7y ago
        Which was of absolutely zero use to them now as it remains today; they don't understand what happened.
- mathewsanders 7y ago
  I agree, and like the right click, force touch options were always accelerators for more confidant users (rather than being the only way to complete some task). Personally I loved force touch and a few months on iOS 13 I’m still struggling with transition to long press gesture instead. The problem with long press as an accelerator is that it’s triggered by a deliberate pause. It might just be a few hundred milliseconds but the perceived time is very frustrating.

stuartd 7y ago

Originally of course there was only one mouse button, and you would ctrl-click for the context menu

ryanbrunner 7y ago
Two button mice were for sure the standard on non-Macintosh PCs well before Windows was in popular usage.
- yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
  And 3 wasn't rare, I think.
kps 7y ago
Originally, yes, there was one¹. But three were used quite soon after.² ¹ https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/350 https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/3... ² https://youtu.be/yJDv-zdhzMY https://youtu.be/yJDv-zdhzMY

GeekyBear 7y ago

It's just as easy to press harder "force touch" as it is to right click. Sorry, but the Windows 95 user interface had the exact same discoverability issue.

egeozcan 7y ago
Um, ease of use has little to do with discoverability. Two buttons are there in front of you.
soylentgraham 7y ago
Opening a Context menu was never a destructive action though, so you could click that other button on your mouse all day without risk. You have to be taught that a context menu exists once, but it's safe & consistent from then on
- GeekyBear 7y ago
  Force touching an item to see if there is a contextual menu isn't a destructive action. That doesn't change the fact that neither interface gives you a way to know in advance which items have associated contextual menus.
  - franga2000 7y ago
    But if you "hard-press" a button that doesn't support hard-pressing, won't it just detect a normal press? Depending on what the button is, that might be destructive or at the very least time-consuming.
    - GeekyBear 7y ago
      Newbie Windows 95 users would quite frequently hide the entire start bar because they accidentally moved the mouse while trying to click on an item, and the system interpreted that as a drag intended to resize the start bar to a zero height. At that point they could no longer use their computer at all until they got external help.
      - gsich 7y ago
        You still see a small bar even with "zero" height.
        zapzupnz 7y ago
        Which was of absolutely zero use to them now as it remains today; they don't understand what happened.
mathewsanders 7y ago
I agree, and like the right click, force touch options were always accelerators for more confidant users (rather than being the only way to complete some task). Personally I loved force touch and a few months on iOS 13 I’m still struggling with transition to long press gesture instead. The problem with long press as an accelerator is that it’s triggered by a deliberate pause. It might just be a few hundred milliseconds but the perceived time is very frustrating.