To touch or not to touch?

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rjhowie

Active member
I know the big modern sell is on pc's with touch screens but as a regular Trainzer I can't see that being more convenient than the traditional keyboard or am I being a Luddite? For some in general use it may be acceptable but i find it gimmicky. Equally, I am not into general gaming and only interested in train/tram simulation and would find it a dashed nusiance leaning to touch a screen for train movements, etc. What's your take
 
You need to clean the finger prints off the screen from time to time. A conventional keyboard and mouse doesn't have that limitations. Also when typing you need a very big screen to have both the keyboard layout and the normal screen displayed at the same time.

Cheerio John
 
I look at it as another failure point,i'll stick with the mouse and keyboard .also i just don't see hordes of people rushing out to buy new touch screens .
 
Unless you have the screen flat on a table, which is not the best viewing point for a sim and not as they are meant to be viewed, vertical in front of you, I can see a new form of RSI being caused by having ones arm extended permanently to "poke" the screen, dirty screens, probably damaged frequently by the heavy handed as well.
Touch screens are ok for gadgets I guess, not for full size monitors, having had some experience of them in a work environment they are not exactly reliable either and go out of alignment.
 
My personal experience with touchscreens is that the failure rate is extremely high, especially relative to traditional HID. If a screen cost the $5-$10 a keyboard or mouse costs, it wouldn't worry me so much, but that's not the case. Also, the accuracy of control is another serious issue - I'm far more accurate and precise with a mouse than any touch screen. While a stylus-based product like a graphics pad/tablet offers much more accuracy, a finger-based touchscreen is inherently inaccurate and imprecise. If you think about it, we've reached and passed the limit of touch-screen usability, for many if not most people, in current smartphones; to even text generally requires "help" in order to form words because they cannot be accurately typed by humans much if not most of the time.
 
Touch screen not for me

Several months ago I was in a well-known electronics big-box store in the USA and a member of the sales staff saw that I was looking at high-end laptops and she came up to me and said "let me show you something cool."

I followed her over to a high-end touch-screen laptop which she demoed for me. I said "thank you for the demo, but I don't know why I would use that". Then right next to it I spotted an Alienware laptop and told her "now that's cool."

I left the store without buying either but the touch-screen concept just didn't appeal to me.
 
The only thing I found a touch screen good for was turning music pages on a screen instead of trying to keep books open on the piano. I had an old hateway, I mean Gateway, laptop that had a touchscreen on it. Other than this one function, I found the function very annoying.

Dell currently has one on sale, though. if anyone is interested. I'm not, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

John
 
Quite right to be un-interested John, especially when working with Trainz. I would find it a constant irriation having to reach out and touch a screen rather than the routine mode of using.

Bobby
 
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