Picking the Right Mouse...

Evolution

It is amazing how simple and effective a mouse is, and it is also amazing how long it took mice to become a part of everyday life. Given that people naturally point at things -- usually before they speak -- it is surprising that it took so long for a good pointing device to develop. Although originally conceived in the 1960s, a couple of decades passed before mice became mainstream.

In the beginning, there was no need to point because computers used crude interfaces like teletype machines or punch cards for data entry. The early text terminals did nothing more than emulate a teletype (using the screen to replace paper), so it was many years (well into the 1960s and early 1970s) before arrow keys were found on most terminals. Full screen editors were the first things to take real advantage of the cursor keys, and they offered humans the first way to point.

Light pens were used on a variety of machines as a pointing device for many years, and graphics tablets, joy sticks and various other devices were also popular in the 1970s. None of these really took off as the pointing device of choice, however.

When the mouse hit the scene -- attached to the Mac, it was an immediate success. There is something about it that is completely natural. Compared to a graphics tablet, mice are extremely inexpensive and they take up very little desk space. In thePC world, mice took longer to gain ground, mainly because of a lack of support in the operating system. Once Windows 3.1 made Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) a standard, the mouse became the PC-human interface of choice very quickly.

The computer mouse has been around nearly as long as the PC, but almost from the start, mice have been the number one cause of many computer-related hand and arm injuries. The reason is simple: Using mice requires users to hold their hands in an unnatural, awkward position for long periods of time. Mousing is just not something we're all built to do.
Numerous pointing device alternatives have emerged to address this problem: contoured mice shaped to fit the hand better; trackballs, which require less arm movement; touchpads, which are found mainly on laptops but are also sold separately, and which rely on simple finger movements; and graphics tablets that use a pen-like stylus moving over an electronic tablet.

There are two types of mouse mechanisms: mechanical and optical. A mechanical mouse translates the movement of a rolling ball inside the device to the pointer on screen. An optical mouse utilizes a micro-camera, instead of any moving parts, to track how you've moved the mouse.
Both mechanical and optical mice come in wired and wireless versions. Like keyboards, the wired versions use USB connections more often than PS/2 ports, but makers usually include converters that allow you to use either port. While Mac mice have only one button, all PC mice have at least two--right and left--and may have additional customizable buttons and a scroll wheel.

Choose your Mouse...!