3 ms·
> Is [TrackPoint] really useful and handy? Two points that other people have not mentioned: * TrackPoint has infinite range because it controls velocity, not
by nayuki 2y ago
> Is [TrackPoint] really useful and handy?
Two points that other people have not mentioned:
* TrackPoint has infinite range because it controls velocity, not position. What I mean is, if you need to reach an on-screen object far away, on a touchpad you might need to flick your finger multiple times because you can't reach it in one stroke. Same with mice sometimes; you might need to lift the mouse, move back, put down the mouse, and reach again. TrackPoint does not suffer from this.
* To do drag-and-drop on TrackPoint, simply hold the desired mouse button down, do the movement on the pointing stick, then lift the mouse button - naturally just like you'd do with a mouse. Whereas to do a left-click drag-and-drop on a touchpad, you need to first do a quick tap on the touchpad (down and up), followed by a drag (down, move, up) on the touchpad; this feels unnatural and has extra latency. And I'm not even sure how you can do a right-click drag-and-drop on a touchpad without the assistance of the right TrackPoint mouse button. (Btw, Windows File Explorer allows right-drag-and-drop; it pops up a menu on the dragged file when the button is lifted. Some file managers on Linux don't allow right-drag-and-drop. And I also use right-click drag for mouse gestures in Firefox, which I heard is a feature pioneered in Opera.)
- jitl 2y agoThe laptop I use is just one-finger click-down->drag->up to left mouse drag, and two finger click-down->drag->up to right mouse drag.
- mmooss 2y agoWhat if you reach the edge of the trackpad before the mouse reaches its destination?
- nayuki 2y agoExcellent question. The behaviors of a couple of laptops I used is that if you hold down the touchpad button and your finger reaches the edge of the touchpad, then the computer will give you a small pre-defined constant velocity in that direction (e.g. if your finger is at the right edge then there will be a cursor velocity to the right) until either your finger is no longer on an edge of the touchpad or you lift the touchpad button. It's a reasonable solution but feels hacky compared to TrackPoint (infinite range) or trackball (infinite range) or mouse (can lift the mouse (not the button) and do more strokes).