naiman-1984-introduction-to-the-lisa

9 The Lisa's Hardware
stantly by incompetent typists like myself) is stuck off
in a corner where it's hard to reach, farther away than
other keys that are much less important (like those for
square and curly brackets).
The keyboard incorporates a numeric keypad (like
the one on a calculator )-a useful feature when you're
working with a lot of figures. The numeric keypad has
a raised dot on the 5 key, to help you position your
fingers quickly.
The keyboard is attached to the console with a fourfoot
coiled cord. This allows you to place the keyboard
in the most comfortable position for working (which
is usually lower and closer to you than the console).
The keytops are concave to fit your finger tips, and they
have a textured, nonslip surface.
Underneath the keyboard are four pull-out reference
cards. The first tells you which keys can be used
to generate special symbols; others provide handy summaries
of the Lisa's basic operations. These cards are
a helpful touch.
Although the keyboard and the screen are impressive,
the Lisa's claims for easy-to-use hardware rest
largely on the mouse-a little box with a ball bearing
on the bottom and a button on the top, connected to
the computer with a wire. It's called a mouse because
it's small (though not as small as an actual mouse), grey
(though not as grey as an actual mouse), and has a wire
sticking out of it that looks a little like a tail (if you
have a vivid imagination).
When you roll the mouse on a flat surface, the
pointer moves in the same direction on the screen (although
not the same distance-the pointer moves about
2Yz inches for every inch the mouse moves).
The benefit claimed for the mouse is that it allows
people to take advantage of their natural hand-eye coordination,
and also that moving the pointer with a mouse
is more intuitive-more like what we do in everyday
life-than hitting various keys to direct it.
When you really get used to the mouse, you forget
that it's there; it feels like you're simply moving the
pointer with your hand. As a result, the mouse lets you