# A Computer Mouse By Any Other Name **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 10, 2011, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879 "2011-04-10T17:33:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/1 "2011-04-10T17:33:11Z")
What do you think that gadget we all use with our computers might have been called it it hadn’t been called it a “mouse”? ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/2 "2011-04-10T17:42:18Z")
Pointer, controller. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/3 "2011-04-10T17:45:21Z")
[http://www.pcworld.com/article/126692-9/the\_25\_greatest\_pcs\_of\_all\_time.html](http://www.pcworld.com/article/126692-9/the_25_greatest_pcs_of_all_time.html) > [@](#): > > 1. Xerox 8010 Information System (1981) > > Announced in 1981 and shipped in 1982, the Star had a graphical user interface with what-you-see-is-what-you-get graphics and a desktop metaphor (which, as documented at the DigiBarn computing museum, still look impressive today). It used a mouse, a device that was so unfamiliar that Xerox’s documentation also called it a “hand-held pointer.” You can see why a one word name like “mouse” came about. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/4 "2011-04-10T17:58:36Z")
puck has also been used. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/5 "2011-04-10T20:28:18Z")
The current version of the basic computer course at my local community college still claims that a wireless mouse can be called a hamster. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/6 "2011-04-10T20:38:25Z")
It was called a “mouse” by Doug Englebart during [“The Mother of All Demos”](http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html) in 1968. See Clip 12: > [@](#): > > Clip 12: This segment discusses control devices, the keyboard and mouse. “I don’t know why we call it a mouse. It started that way and we never changed it.” The operation principles of the mouse are explained with Bill Paxton being video patched in from SRI in Menlo Park. Doug discusses the tracking spot on the screen and relation between mouse movements and attention focused on the tracking spot. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/7 "2011-04-10T20:54:43Z")
Palmster. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/8 "2011-04-10T23:37:40Z")
Pointy-clicky-thingy. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/9 "2011-04-11T00:29:53Z")
- and widget lost yet another chance to become a clearly tangible item. Dexterociter! Brought to you in Clickorama! ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/10 "2011-04-11T01:39:16Z")
“That other thing you have in your hand when you’re surfing the internet”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/11 "2011-04-11T05:52:28Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > “That other thing you have in your hand when you’re surfing the internet”. 😉 The goooey ? lol Declan ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/12 "2011-04-11T09:08:17Z")
Manually Operated User Selection Equipment. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/13 "2011-04-11T09:17:51Z")
“The Device” ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/14 "2011-04-11T14:29:29Z")
Clicker? Paddle? Pointer? Remote? ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/15 "2011-04-11T14:44:33Z")
I’d probably go with clicker, although for some reason we called the TV remote in our house the “dink”, so a mouse might have been known as the “PC dink”. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/16 "2011-04-11T14:48:29Z")
a rat. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-computer-mouse-by-any-other-name/577879/17 "2011-04-11T15:23:55Z")
Remote. Or possibly slider.