April 11, 2001

3:43 AM

"You are about to activate your first gesture command in Opera. A gesture command is activated by pressing the right mouse button, and while holding it down, performing a simple movement with the mouse, and then releasing the button"... such as left going back a page, or down opening a new window. Aliens bless gesture interfaces, and Molyneux.
posted by holloway (17 comments total)

Opera 5.1 takes on all comers, and don't you forget it.

The gesture commands are a smart, wonderful addition to an already fine program. They even make sense! Go figure.
posted by hijinx at 4:13 AM on April 11, 2001

oh my god. i just downloaded this version and i think they've actually fixed all the annoying bits that were stopping me from using opera for everything, ie the flash and java wierdness, pop up freak outs etc.

the gesture stuff is great, some of it was already in 5.0. the "hold down left mouse button and click right to go forward" has been fantastic.

if it stays this good i'll be sticking with it.
posted by johnboy at 4:51 AM on April 11, 2001

Just a matter of time until we see gesture commands in IE
posted by samsara at 5:31 AM on April 11, 2001

We've seen gesture commands at IE for a while, though.

(Which is how I first read the post.)
posted by chicobangs at 5:59 AM on April 11, 2001

Saw this on Planet Black & White a while back: Sensiva appears to be a general-purpose gesture add-on for a number of operating systems and applications. (Including IE, from what I can tell, samsara.)
posted by harmful at 5:59 AM on April 11, 2001

Speaking of Black & White, the use of gestures in this game, for casting spells, is inspired. I've read reviews that complain about it being clumsy, since it doesn't always seem to work, but I still love it. Sorry to digress. Carry on.
posted by crunchland at 6:56 AM on April 11, 2001

All I have to say is that gesture commands are almost impossible to execute if you're using a non-standard mouse. I have a Logitech TrackMan Marble FX, which is one of Logitech's generally excellent mouse-trackball hybrids, and I've been reduced to screaming like an idiot at Black & White for three evenings in a row trying to master gesture commands.
posted by briank at 7:15 AM on April 11, 2001

Thanks for the update, holloway. I haven't downloaded the new version yet, but I just tried to use the Google window in my version 5 and I get the This merchant is no longer participating in the affiliate program screen. Is this feature gone from the new version? That would be too bad, it was a great feature.
posted by aflakete at 3:55 PM on April 11, 2001

The Mac OS has had gesture command in it for a while now. Click the name of a file and then move the mouse to make it be selected for renaming. I don't know of any others, though.
posted by endquote at 4:26 PM on April 11, 2001

aflakete: If you mean the "Search With Google" feature, it's there and works. I love it!
posted by NsJen at 5:02 PM on April 11, 2001

FYI, Black and White wasn't offtopic, hence the "Aliens bless [Peter] Molyneux" ... Peter being the lead guy at Lionhead who produced B&W.
posted by holloway at 5:49 PM on April 11, 2001

Hmm ... so if I hold down the right button, then move the mouse right, down, then down and right, and left-click, can I dragon-punch annoying pop-up windows out of the air?
How many websites to I have to visit to power up Super-Gestures?
posted by CrunchyFrog at 9:06 PM on April 11, 2001

Don't bother, Frog. The last boss is Stile Project, and his Porn Banner Attack does 90% damage and is unblockable. There's some serious balance issues--I'd wait for Web Fighter EX Plus Alpha.
posted by darukaru at 10:14 PM on April 11, 2001

Sensiva rocks!
posted by crunchland at 12:40 AM on April 12, 2001

Seems the mouse has to be moved rather slowly for the gestures to work. Unless there's some way to adjust that, I think I'll be staying with keyboard shortcuts for the time being.
posted by mrbula at 9:34 AM on April 12, 2001

Including IE, from what I can tell, samsara

Although, I think this is the first time we've seen gesture commands built-in for a web browser. I was actually bringing up the issue that MS, almost always, tends to use the competetor's good ideas (Not to say that its a bad thing or that MS, in particular, is the only company that will use ideas from other companies to better their products. ie Opera's gesture feature was probably inspired by a sensiva-like product or B&W.) You'll probably someday see gestures for IE as they ponder, "Ooh, now will you look at that! We could have that feature in our product too

I really enjoy Opera for they are, in a way, picking up the slack where Netscape left off. The gesture feature is incredibly convenient too. I just hope they keep up with the momentum.

I've also seen and used a program similar to Sensiva, and would also like to add that many mouse utilities use gestures via the "middle button" ;-)
posted by samsara at 12:46 PM on April 12, 2001

mrbula: I've been using mouse gestures in Opera since last night (albeit with a trackball), and I haven't had to move the mouse slowly. In fact, it even seems to work better if I use small, quick movements as opposed to slower, exaggerated movements. When I do the "close window" stroke, the pointer barely moves an inch each direction.
posted by CrayDrygu at 12:47 PM on April 12, 2001