From: Larry Yaeger (lsynewtal_at_beanblossom.in.us)
Date: Thu Aug 25 2005 - 19:38:22 PDT
At 5:30 PM +0100 8/25/05, Joel M. Sciamma wrote:
>I can confirm that with an Intuos 3 tablet on my 17" PB, Inkwell=A0
>works very well indeed and the nicer appearance of the ink traces=A0
>adds something to experience too. Recognition is as good as I have
>ever experienced on the Newton.
Glad to hear it.
>However the discontinuity of the tablet/screen arrangement makes it a=A0
>hard thing to use freely in the routine workflow and there's this big
>keyboard attached...
Absolutely true, on both fronts...
It's very awkward, at first, for most people to=20
look one place and write another, so opaque=20
tablets take some real getting used to. You can=20
and do get used to them if you use them much, as=20
graphic designers/artists do (one of Apple's core=20
markets, and kind of the target market for=20
Inkwell), to the point that you don't even think=20
about it anymore, but it's definitely hard at=20
first.
And if you're entering a lot of text, and have a=20
keyboard handy, and there are no social=20
constraints on using it, then a pen is no=20
substitute for a keyboard. Printing as fast as=20
humanly possible, at a rate that is probably not=20
sustainable, legibly at least, for extended=20
periods of time, you can only produce about 3.5=20
characters/second, tops. Being generous and=20
estimating 5 characters/word, that's 42=20
words/minute (hey, maybe that's the "ultimate=20
question"... How many words/minute can you=20
print?... Naaah). A decent touch typist can type=20
80 words/minute, and some professionals can type=20
up to 120 words/minute. Pens are not going to=20
replace keyboards for nominal data entry.
But, and I know I'm preaching to the choir, it=20
should be noted that there are lots of situations=20
where pen makes more sense than keyboard. In=20
meetings. In classrooms. On rounds in=20
hospitals. Taking orders or doing any kind of=20
form filling in remote locations. And for people=20
who work routinely with tablets, it's just=20
convenient to not have to put the pen down, type=20
a filename, caption, or whatever small bit of=20
text on the keyboard, and then pick up the pen=20
again; it smooths the workflow considerably to be=20
able to just enter random snippets of text with=20
the pen. Given that plus the fact that artists=20
and graphic designers are already comfortable=20
with graphics tablets, is why we say they=20
represent Inkwell's primary market (until there's=20
a real Tablet Mac, that is).
>When "write anywhere" is enabled I find that I start to drag a=A0
>selection in text but the inker is invoked instead - I have to=A0
>remember to pause between the click and the drag. On the Newt you=A0
>have to pause for the "selection blob" to appear so you are=A0
>conditioned to treat this as another gesture. However, this mode can=A0
>be very effective for editing text due to the expanded gestures or
>when one hand is occupied with a phone.
Yep, the pause-to-mouse behavior in OS X was=20
knowingly taken from the Newton's pause-to-drag=20
behavior.
=46YI, if you don't already have a good, dedicated=20
use for the barrel buttons on your pen (and if=20
you *have* barrel buttons on your pen, of=20
course), we provided a hook that Wacom uses so=20
you can map barrel button clicks to toggle "write=20
anywhere". Makes switching back and forth=20
effortless, albeit modal. Or if you can find a=20
convenient, out-of-the-way place for the=20
collapsed Ink window, you can toggle "write=20
anywhere" by tapping the first toolbar button.=20
And in Tiger, there's what we internally call a=20
new "ink on demand" mode--in the Ink prefPane you=20
can select one of the "Pen options", "Hold=20
[upper/lower] button to Ink", and then the pen=20
will behave strictly as a mouse unless and until=20
you hold down the selected barrel button, at=20
which point it will ink instead. So there are=20
more options now, besides just the pause-to-mouse=20
behavior.
>A question for Larry: Why did word expansion not make it in the
>transition? Coupled to a macro program it would be even more powerful.
Limited resources. No other reason. There's a=20
"feature request" for it somewhere in the system.=20
It just has never percolated to the top. I agree=20
it would be a very worthwhile addition.
>I started to use a tablet (Kurta) when I became a Newton user in 1994=A0
>because I so liked using the stylus and have had one ever since,=A0
>shunning all mice & trackballs. As I used CAD more and digital
>photography came along, a tablet was the perfect tool.
Ah, yes. Right tool for the job. And no wonder=20
Inkwell works well for you; you're already over=20
that look-here-write-there learning curve.
>Roll on the tablet Mac.
I sincerely hope so, one of these days!
- larryy
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Aug 25 2005 - 21:00:02 PDT