[sdiy] Control Interface Angst </ Wakeman>

[Glen]

At 04:58 PM 7/7/03 , phillip m gallo wrote:

>The PC GUI mouse driven pseudo-knob is personally frustrating and not again
>"idiomatic" or necessarily "effortless".

Controlling a complicated synth with a mouse is a bit like having a large
traditional analog synth with hundreds of stiff potentiometers (with
half-moon shafts) and only one actual knob--which you have to move from
shaft to shaft, in order to adjust your sound. Who in their right mind
would want a synth like that?

What I would like to know is, why do computer users in general settle for
just one mouse-like (continuous input, if you will) device? Why can't we
have a row of rotary encoders or sliders next to our qwerty keyboards?
Something? Anything?

A lot of design software would benefit from more simultaneously usable
controls. Why aren't these common devices on general purpose computers? Is
it social inertia?


later,
Glen Berry