Mouse, and toolbar issues.

Question

I've been a windows user for a long time, and for the past few years, I'm almost exclusively a laptop user (dells and thinkpads). I've always been intrigued by the mac, and now that I can dual-boot to windows if I need to (on a core-duo), I'm more inclined than ever to try a macbook. Money is not an issue.
So I was in the Apple store today, playing with the macbook seriously, and to my complete surprise, I learned that you cannot 'tap' on the glide-point mouse to 'click'.
What I'm talking about is the ability to first position the mouse with your finger, then 'tap' with the same finger on the surface of the glide surface to implement a left mouse click (or just mouse click, I guess!). In addition to making 'selection' really easy (clicking on a button, for example), another real compelling use of this is 'tap/drag' - to move a window, for example, you move mouse to the top of the window (slide finger on glide surface) then tap finger down/slide finger to move in one continuous motion. This saves you from sliding with one finger, then clicking with the thumb and sliding with the finger. The mac guy said, "ah, we have something better, we have two finger scrolling" - hmmm, not quite relevant, but never mind. Can anyone tell me why Apple don't implement this very ergonomically valuable feature? I know a lot of windows users don't use this feature, which is fine - you can disable it in software. Is there a patent issue or something that would prevent Apple from providing this? I'm not saying every apple user would want it, but I see no reason why you would not provide it as an option should the user so desire it. By the way, the 'two finger scroll' that the store guy was so excited about is also available on the windows platform as 'touch/slide' on the right and bottom sides - I use it all the time.
The second thing I noticed, for the first time, was the fact that no matter what your window arrangement is, the currently active window has it's 'menu controls' across the very top of the screen, rather than at the top of the currently active window. To elaborate, let's assume I have a huge monitor, and I choose to have one of my applications non-full screen, but rather in the lower left area of the screen (eg, I have an email window open in the lower left quarter of the screen). If I wish to access a menu item for that appliction, I have to move the mouse all the way to the top of the screen rather than only to the top of the application window. This is not a huge deal, but having gone through carpal tunnel issues years ago, I'm very sensitive to ergonomic issues, and one ergonomic issue is mouse movement; minimising 'travel' is a big deal. So is there an option to display application menus docked to the application and not always at the very top of the screen? If not, is there an ergonomic justification for this I'm not aware of?
Thanks!
Dell, Thinkpad, other   Windows XP Pro  

Answer 1

So I was in the Apple store today, playing with the
macbook seriously, and to my complete surprise, I
learned that you cannot 'tap' on the glide-point
mouse to 'click'.
[snip...]
Can anyone tell me
why Apple don't implement this very ergonomically
valuable feature? I know a lot of windows users
don't use this feature, which is fine - you can
disable it in software.
Keep in mind that you're describing a feature of the hardware not Windows. You're relying on driver support from the hardware manufacturer to enable this feature.
Also keep in mind that Boot Camp (are you referring to Apple's Boot Camp?) is still a beta product. This is the software that supplies the drivers to Windows for the Apple hardware. It may change in the future to allow this feature. Or possibly, the trackpad hardware does not have the ability to do this right now. Post feedback to the Boot Camp beta team and tell them what you want.
If you're actually interested in any of these features for the Mac OS X side of things be sure to keep an eye on the development of Side Track from Raging Menace <http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/sidetrack/index.html>. This product replaces Apple's hardware driver for its trackpad with its own.
The second thing I noticed, for the first time, was
the fact that no matter what your window arrangement
is, the currently active window has it's 'menu
controls' across the very top of the screen, rather
than at the top of the currently active window.
Finally, keep in mind that Mac OS X is not Windows. What you're describing is a design feature of Windows and is not a design feature of Mac OS X. This isn't to say it's a good or bad feature. Each company has made its choice for user interface experience and you've hit upon a feature of one that you'd like for the other. This just simply isn't how Mac OS X works. The menu bar is always at the top of the screen because Mac applications are not designed to be restrained to self-contained windows. If you're truly concerned about carpal tunnel be sure to look into using keyboard commands and contextual menus from the mouse to quickly access a good amount of commands. You can also use Mac OS X to program keyboard combinations for those commands that don't have any.
Hope this helps! bill
1 GHz Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.8)