[Simulated (OP)]

Since the first computers didn't have a mouse when did they come about and who made the first one? They sure do save alot of time don't they. Such a nice invention.

[another_someone]

The whole concept of what was first known as WIMPS (Windows, Icons, menus, pointing devices - the mouse is a pointing device) was first developed at PARC by Xerox.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Parc

PARC (Palo Alto Research Center, Inc.), formerly Xerox PARC, is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California that began as a division of Xerox Corporation. It was founded in 1970, and incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox in 2002. It is best known for inventing laser printing, Ethernet, the modern personal computer graphical user interface (GUI) paradigm, object-oriented programming, ubiquitous computing, and advancing very-large-scale-integration (VLSI).

Steve Jobs of Apple saw the work at PARC, and developed the Apple Lisa (the ill fated forerunner of the Apple Mac).  Once the Apple Macintosh proved successful, Microsoft then sought to imitate it.  Apple then sued Microsoft for copying its idea, but Microsoft then pointed out to the courts that it was never Apple's idea in the first place because it had been developed by Xerox.

Have a look at

[Simulated (OP)]

Oh thank you George.

What about keyboard shortcuts like

Crtl+C and Crtl+V

[another_someone]

Keyboard 'shortcuts' are a complex issue.

The specific short-cuts Ctrl/C and Ctrl/V are fairly recent - the older short-cuts for copy and paste were Ctrl/Ins and Shift/Ins (and in many applications those shortcuts still work).

The idea of using keyboard combinations goes back at least as far as to the earliest PC's, although they were not known as short-cuts.  In very crude terms, you can thing of the Ctrl/Alt/Delete key combination as a type of keyboard short-cut (except for a long while there was no long cut for it).

Many early applications relied totally on control or alt key combinations because they did not have any pull down menus, so they either used the function keys (F1 to F10 - the early PCs did not have F11 or F12), or they used control key combinations to invoke functions.  Probably the first word processor available for PC's (having been ported from CP/M) was a product called WordStar, and with that, you had a long list of control key combinations you had to remember to use for all its functions (in unix, editors like Vi still work that way).

So really, the short-cuts are nothing new; but it is the long-cuts (the pull down menus) which are new.

[Simulated (OP)]

Ahhhh

[techmind]

Since the first computers didn't have a mouse when did they come about and who made the first one? They sure do save alot of time don't they. Such a nice invention.

I don't know when the mouse was invented, but I'm fairly sure the trackball preceeded it by many years. (For anyone who doesn't know, a trackball is like an upside down mouse - you roll your hand or fingertips over a large ball).

The original Apple mouse, and the AMX Mouse (available for British home-computers like the Sinclair Spectrum and BBC Micro) were around in 1983-1984 time.

As usual, Wikipedia can tell you lots about the mouse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_mouse
It says they were first sold commercially in 1981.
It says it was first invented in 1963 by Douglas Engelbart at Stanford Research Institue. An improved design was arrived at in Bill English in 1972 at Xerox PARC labs.

[Simulated (OP)]

trackball is the middle scrolling thing?

[DoctorBeaver]

trackball is the middle scrolling thing?

No. It's a ball that you could rotate in its socket.

[Simulated (OP)]

so the ball in the OLLLLLLDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD mouses?

[Lynda]

Oh thank you George.

What about keyboard shortcuts like

Crtl+C and Crtl+V

I'm glad I don't have to remember those!     A few years ago my computer monitor packed up whilst I was in the middle of things.     I panicked as I was new to XP - I used older systems before - and didn't realise I could just turn off the computer at the base unit to shut it down.      I couldn't remember how it was done so phoned a friend, who is blind and doesn't use his computer monitor, to remind me of the keyboard shortcut to shut the computer down.    (I have forgotten it again now!)

I like my mouse - it is an optical one - much better than those with the ball which always seemed to stick just when you were in a hurry to look at something!

[Simulated (OP)]

There's a shortcut to turn the computer off? That's interesting.

It might not be like shut down completely, maybe like ask you what you want to do like stand bye or something like that right? But if its not like that it would stink if you pressed that short cut while you were doing something ha

[another_someone]

There's a shortcut to turn the computer off? That's interesting.

It might not be like shut down completely, maybe like ask you what you want to do like stand bye or something like that right? But if its not like that it would stink if you pressed that short cut while you were doing something ha

Is that not what Ctrl/Alt/Del does (these days it brings up a menu, but in the old DOS days, it just rebooted your computer without asking).

[Simulated (OP)]

It does on the school computer, but I defiently haven't seen it on the home one..

[JimBob]

Sorry Ryan, just could look at the "Whom" any more - I kept hearing the voice of my high school English teacher, Miss Jane Smoot - 98 years old - telling me that it just wasn't right - "you can do better than that; can't you diagram a sentence?; what is wrong with your thinking; you need to start using your powers of reasoning; the English language has rules, you know; if you want to make money you need to communicate ...."

It was a nightmare, I tell you, a bloody nightmare!

It is over now and the Thorazine is starting to kick in so I'll be OK.

[syhprum]

I used to carry a small piece of glass paper to rough up balls in early versions of mouse's as they tended to get too smooth.
I notice a lot of professionals doctors, lawyers etc use wired mouse's as opposed to Bluetooth ones is this for security or because the batteries tend to run out at inconvenient times ?.   

[WarnerGet]

Heh < glad you like it I guess we have the person who named them to thank for that though. Whoever that would be we might never know

[Tsm3696Monkey]

I have a question. How did they use a computer without a mouse?

[Bored chemist]

I have a question. How did they use a computer without a mouse?

With a keyboard.

[alancalverd]

I never understood the fascination with mice. I've always used wired trackballs - quiet, stable, reliable, no batteries to die, and much more precise for drawing. For some reason vets and dentists never have quite enough room on their x-ray work surfaces to use a mouse, but can never be persuaded to invest in a trackball, and spend many miserable hours fumbling and complaining instead.

[paul cotter]

I'd say the mouse was made by it's murine antecedents by the process of sexual reproduction. Forgive me for this frivolous remark, I couldn't resist being mischievous.