The HUGE advantage of the mouse over touchscreens is that you are not forced to keep the monitor screen very close to you. With the mouse you can keep your monitor at a distance.
The mouse allows you to sit in various positions. Two feets on the desk if that's your kick. The touchscreen almost always forces you to take the monitor screen on your lap as soon as you lean back on your chair.
The mouse is also the only option when you slightly rotate the monitor so that several other poeple can watch it.
pcRat said:
Professional digital artists that work with a touch monitor (usually a Wacom one) will ALWAYS use a stylus. When you have the two, the need for the mouse is just not there anymore
I have done a lot of graphics with a stylius and I can tell you that there is absolutely no use in pointing the stylius on the screen instead of a black drawing tablet.
Because computer graphics don't work like paper graphics or oil paintings or other classical mediums. One of the reason for this is that most of the time you work on a zoomed in (200 to 400% usualy) surface. This makes retouching extremely precise. Another reason for that is that the drawing you are working on is not hiden by your own hand and elbow. You don't need to remove your hand and lean backward to admire your art in the creation process.
There are also a lot of operations on graphic documents which are just not as easy with a stylius, like those requiring double clicking and drawing straight lines. Curiousely drawing a straight line is better made with a mouse than a stylius because with the mouse you click and click only when the cursor is there, immobile where the line must end (or start). The stylius because it's held in the air is less stable for such operation and the click action always incure a slight move of the cursor.
Inversly, moving through menus and submenus, clicking buttons and checking options with a stylius is as easy if not easier than with a mouse. But it requires a drawing tablet.
Coke said:
There are similarities of a stylus and a mouse of course, difference is that a stylus is held in your hand in a more natural way than a mouse.
Actualy for many poeple holding a mouse (which they do 8 hour a day) is more natural than holding a pen, which they only do ocasionaly.
I would go as far as saying that the hand of
homo modernicus has been geneticaly formed onto the mouse shape to the point that the muscles of the hands are not adapted to holding a pen, a stylius or any vertical tool anymore.
goodintentions said:
you guys have no idea what it's like to introduce the computer to the elderly who have never used a computer in their lives.
Touchscreens are great because they are more intuitive and direct than mice. When an elderly has to use a mouse for the first time, they have to make huge effforts of concentration to move the pointer, not too much on the left, a little bit more on the right, and then press the mouse button. This is already a victory when they succesfuly clicked a link.
Now with touchscreen they can put their finger where they need, something they don't have to learn, and touching the screen has the immediate clicking effect.
But these poeple are like those who don't want to use electric tools because it's too heavy on their hand or because they don't know how to use them. Ok, but what gets the job done faster?
Grand parents who never used a mouse are doomed to stay without it and rely on a touchscreen that they must keep close to their body or on their lap for the rest of their life. They will never enjoy the speed, precision, instant right-click and other advantages of the mouse.
Now take a 4 YO kid who will also use a mouse for the first time. After 10 minutes he will use it with the same ease as you do.
