Scrollbar Improvements
I think I saw this on Digg a few weeks ago…or perhaps somewhere else. Anyway, I think this is a great idea:
It seems to address some very obvious limitations of scrollbars, I like the little triangle when the “thumb” gets down to 1 pixel, and I like that it’s easier to grab quickly with the mouse without having to very precisely point at the exact right spot. I suspect that GUIs supporting quick gestures are a lot more productive than GUIs requiring super precise pointing and clicking.
I do not have time to work on this, but I wonder if anyone out there is interested in putting together a Swing implementation of this component?
Next question…is this component a new innovation, or is this something that already exists, for instance, in OSX or some other GUI toolkit?
I think that’s a nice idea too. There could even be some kind of “lock” on it so that you could limit the scrolling up to a particular point. Well maybe this would create new nightmares for support services, but I’d definitely like to see it in Java.
Since using a MacBook I just use two finger trackpad scrolling. Works well for me. In fact the trackpad on the MacBook is the first trackpad to negate the use of a mouse for me. The demo seems to assume the traditional GUI has a mouse in all futures when to me it’s obvious that multi-touch will begin to proliferate. Without a mouse the demo is somewhat redundant. How many scrollbars on an iPhone? (I don’t own one, it’s a sincere question!)
+1 with MPR. The demo is cool but not as cool as the MacBook trackpad.
I’m was blown away by the trackpad: everyone should try it in an Apple store.
One finger moves the mouse pointer. To scroll, as Mike says above, you just put a second finger down and drag.
For other apps, you can use a pinching motion to zoom in or out. And there is a three finger gesture for browsing very quickly through a slideshow. (I think)
I would agree that this is a big improvement over the standard toolbar and would like to see it done. It is however, something that I would have to use for a while to work out interface kinks.
Scrolling is something that is a big deal in computers and the scroll wheel has been the only real widely deployed advancement in desktop input devices since the mouse.
I will also be the third to declare the Macbook trackpad wonderful. Like the iPhone, it creates an illusion that you are physically moving the page.