MouseText
Encyclopedia
MouseText designed by Bruce Tognazzini
is a set of 32 graphical characters first implemented in the Apple IIc
. They were then retrofitted to the Apple IIe
forming part of the Enhanced IIe upgrade. A slightly revised version was then released with the Apple IIgs
.
MouseText made it possible to display simple text user interface
s resembling the Macintosh graphical user interface
. Since the Apples lacked the ability to display user-defined characters in text mode, all GUI-like displays beyond crude ASCII art
approximations had to use the slower and more memory-hungry graphical mode before MouseText was available. MouseText resulted in an eightfold increase in display speed for mouse applications, bringing such text-based applications as word processors up to the same speed as the original Macintosh. Word processors running on the two computers would not be confused with one another, however, as the mouse under MouseText would move in discrete jumps from character cell to character cell, rather than the smooth movement of the Macintosh, and text was still monospaced.
The MouseText characters replaced a redundant set of inverse uppercase characters (@,A..Z,[,\,],^,_) in the Alternate character set.
27 character. To turn off MouseText the program should output an ASCII 24 character and then if required return the display to Normal video mode. For example, in Applesoft
the following code fragment will display the MouseText representation of a folder:
Bruce Tognazzini
Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini is a usability consultant in partnership with Donald Norman and Jakob Nielsen in the Nielsen Norman Group, which specializes in human computer interaction. He was with Apple Computer for fourteen years, then with Sun Microsystems for four years, then WebMD for another four...
is a set of 32 graphical characters first implemented in the Apple IIc
Apple IIc
The Apple IIc, the fourth model in the Apple II series of personal computers, was Apple Computer’s first endeavor to produce a portable computer. The end result was a notebook-sized version of the Apple II that could be transported from place to place...
. They were then retrofitted to the Apple IIe
Apple IIe
The Apple IIe is the third model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The e in the name stands for enhanced, referring to the fact that several popular features were now built-in that were only available as upgrades and add-ons in earlier models...
forming part of the Enhanced IIe upgrade. A slightly revised version was then released with the Apple IIgs
Apple IIGS
The Apple , the fifth and most powerful model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The "GS" in the name stands for Graphics and Sound, referring to its enhanced graphics and sound capabilities, both of which greatly surpassed previous models of the line...
.
MouseText made it possible to display simple text user interface
Text user interface
TUI short for: Text User Interface or Textual User Interface , is a retronym that was coined sometime after the invention of graphical user interfaces, to distinguish them from text-based user interfaces...
s resembling the Macintosh graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
. Since the Apples lacked the ability to display user-defined characters in text mode, all GUI-like displays beyond crude ASCII art
ASCII art
ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters...
approximations had to use the slower and more memory-hungry graphical mode before MouseText was available. MouseText resulted in an eightfold increase in display speed for mouse applications, bringing such text-based applications as word processors up to the same speed as the original Macintosh. Word processors running on the two computers would not be confused with one another, however, as the mouse under MouseText would move in discrete jumps from character cell to character cell, rather than the smooth movement of the Macintosh, and text was still monospaced.
The MouseText characters replaced a redundant set of inverse uppercase characters (@,A..Z,[,\,],^,_) in the Alternate character set.
How to access MouseText characters
In order to display MouseText characters a program must first select the Alternate character set, turn on Inverse video mode and then output an ASCIIASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
27 character. To turn off MouseText the program should output an ASCII 24 character and then if required return the display to Normal video mode. For example, in Applesoft
Applesoft
AppleSoft is a name used by Apple Inc. for:* Applesoft BASIC, a floating-point BASIC interpreter* the division responsible for developing Mac OS from 1993 until about 1997...
the following code fragment will display the MouseText representation of a folder:
]PR#3
]INVERSE : PRINT CHR$(27);"XY";CHR$(24) : NORMAL