[mythtv-users] OSX frontend mouse?

David Abrahams dave at boost-consulting.com
Mon Jan 9 02:03:42 UTC 2006


Brad DerManouelian <myth at dermanouelian.com> writes:

> On Jan 8, 2006, at 6:13 PM, David Abrahams wrote:
>
>>
>> Within the MythTV frontend on my mac the mouse becomes invisible and
>> inoperable.  At first I thought that was just how MythTV worked, but
>> then I happened to access the frontend over VNC from a Linux box, and
>> the mouse worked!  Can anyone tell me how to get the mouse working on
>> my MacOS frontend?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> Dave
>
> Utilities/Setup->Appearance->Screen Settings (second screen in
> Appearance)
> There's a checkbox for Hide Mouse Cursor in Myth
>
> You'll find that some buttons works with a mouse, but theme-specific
> stuff probably won't. 

Oh, like the top-level menus.  Too bad :(

> Myth isn't meant to be used with a mouse, but there is some support
> for it left over from legacy code, I believe.  You'd be much better
> off getting used to not using the mouse. It's faster... really!

I am an inveterate emacs user and I generally prefer not using a
mouse... really!  But Myth's keyboard interface is so unpredictable
for me (sometimes spacebar selects/presses the current widget --
e.g. for buttons -- but if you're on a checkbox it presses the "Next"
button!?!) that a mouse is much less frustrating.  Also in
configuration screens with many items it's a lot faster to click the
*one* I care about.  Furthermore, I'd much rather keep a little mouse
on my coffee table than an entire keyboard.  Yes, I will be setting up
a remote, but that will inherit all the same problems of the
keyboard UI.

There's very little I've found in the MythTV UI that can really take
advantage of the keyboard anyway.  In fact, it seems like in many
screens where a keyboard _could_ be really great, the UI only lets you
use the arrow keys.  For example, when setting the duration or time of
a recording in the manual record screen I should be able to type in a
number.  Instead I can only scroll through a list of numbers that often
doesn't include the exact value I want.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com


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