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Comment by kruipen | Hacker News Reader

The touch screen on the Surface has one killer application: scrolling while reading. It's very natural to scroll content with a thumb on the edge of the screen.

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Yes, but you have to lift your arm up. It is far far faster to scroll through a web page with the touchpad.

Lift your arm up? I can rest my arm on the desk and have my thumb in the lower right corner of the screen. It's actually much nicer than having my hand in front of me slightly raised to have two fingers to scroll with. Try it now.

Yes, but then you just have one hand on the keyboard. So now to type, you have to bring your right hand down, and resume typing. The distance there is greater vs. using the touchpad. I just have to flick my wrist and boom, I am on the touch pad scrolling. On Surface, assuming I hate the touchpad and want to use the screen, I have to take my hand off the keyboard, put it on the screen and start scrolling.

If having your hands on the keyboard is so important, on a Surface you can just scroll with the arrow keys, the way Flying Spaghetti Monster intended.

Why do you assume that you have to use the screen or the touchpad exclusively? Surely if you're going to be fliting back and froth between keyboard and scrolling you'll use the touchpad but if you're reading a longer form article you rest your hand on the desk with your thumb on the screen and scroll comfortably. Both can work.

Screen scrolling is for those cases where you do not need to type. Which is actually a lot of online content consumption these days.

If you never do prolonged reading on your devices, then yes, it's not a scenario for you specifically. But many people find it quite useful.

Not if you're using it in tablet mode.

You're starting to sound like one of those funny infomercials where everything is black and white and the actor fumbles with some overtly awkward action, that is otherwise mundane... Holding their outstretched arm up over their head with their other arm, a grimace of strain on their face, trying to scroll with their pinky finger. All the while the voice-over is asking why you'd subject yourself to this.

It's a, very natural, quarter inch movement of your thumb while your arm rests comfortably on the table. Not unlike having your hand on your coffee mug.

I think the point, though, is that your hand wouldn't naturally rest on the table near the screen like that. The main reason you're comfortable doing that is because you know you can scroll with your hand in that position. The natural resting position would be to relax your hands off the keyboard after typing and that puts it squarely in the area of the (comically) huge trackpad.

Bingo. Your hand is already there, no need to leave the workspace. There is no need to move up they keyboard and to the right and then up the screen to scroll.

The hundreds of millions of people that have used a mouse can attest to how 'natural' it is.

Except that the mouse is an example of being completely unnatural... The whole point of the positioning on the trackpad is that it's right there when you relax your hands from the keyboard. Otherwise, you'd see computers with trackpads above the keyboard. The positioning of a mouse may be a reflex from usage, but it's the exact opposite of natural.

I wish the trackpad was above the keyboard. I am constantly accidentally switching focus or selecting things while I am typing.

Enjoy your rheumatory problems in the future

I'm reading this right now (well, thirty seconds ago, before I started typing) on a touch-screen Chromebook. My right hand was resting on the table in a vertical orientation with the edge of my hand on the table, my finger loosely resting on the back of the screen, and my thumb on the touchscreen scrolling up and down. Very smooth, very natural.

Conversely, scrolling up and down this text box using the trackpad is tiny, cramped, constrained motions of my finger on the touchpad.

> It is far far faster to scroll through a web page with the touchpad.

This is true if you are the only one using it. If people are standing around you or over your shoulder, and you are all interacting with the screen - then a touchable screen is more quickly usable than shuffling who-has-the-keyboard-mouse. Not saying you are wrong, but there are scenarios where a touch screen is the "best" of the available IO options.

So now I have to let other people touch my screen? Best argument against a touchscreen ever :-).

Seriously though, I'd probably prefer a touchscreen and normal keyboard to the touch bar -- at least I'm already looking at the screen.

This sounds like everyone here is about to get into an argument over hand position. I feel like the hand being positioned hear the bottom of the computer is the result of you knowing that you can scroll with your thumb like that. Wouldn't your natural position after using the keyboard be to just relax your hands which would put it right near the trackpad? It seems like moving your hands out to the side of the computer/table/desk is a self-fulfilling improvement as you most likely wouldn't put your hands there if there wasn't a touchscreen. There would be no benefit or convenience to it otherwise. On top of that, you'll most likely still have one hand resting near the keyboard for typing which further worsens the inconvenience.

This is in tablet "mode" right? Otherwise it would be easier to use a two-finger scroll on the touchpad (for me anyway).

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