[13of40]

For context, the author said this as a side-note to his distainful comments about being expected to use a "mouse". He goes on to say "It's very frustrating to miss the mark with the mouse's selector and destroy what has taken a good bit of time and effort to achieve, or to continually run the mouse headlong into the keyboard and risk ruining the keyboard or the mouse module itself."

(I'm currently using a mouse which has been operating in close proximity to a keyboard for some years now, so I can attest that at least his latter complaint hasn't weathered the test of time.)

[rocky1138]

Don't forget that mice during this era were of generally low quality and were "ball mice" which would frequently become clogged with dirt. They were a nightmare to use.

[ralfd]

I have only experience with Amiga mice, but if they were good enough for me as a kid to play Civilization and Sim City, then mouse technology should have been good enough for using MS Word.

http://www.nightfallcrew.com/wp-content/gallery/commodore-13...

[rocky1138]

Maybe he had a bad mouse and you had a good one.

[keypress]

I still have a ball mouse, I think it's the first I bought way back in 2000 or some such and it's fine to use provided it's kept clean and used on a good surface.

[pryelluw]

A ball mouse from the year 2000 is quite different than one from the 80s. The old ones were clunky.

[13of40]

And apparently they fell to pieces when they careened into the side of a keyboard.