Compare 3 alternatives to StrokeIt...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_gesture

According to Wikipedia, there are currently 4 English mouse gesture programs for Windows. Has anyone tried these 3 and know if any are good alternatives to StrokeIt? How well do they compare to StrokeIt? Write your experiences here! :)

Brass via Mime plugin
Sensiva
Mojo Sidekick

The Sensiva looks very promising, I might try it. But, Stroke-It is free and works...

I did a quick comparison of the three several months ago when Vista started shipping on new systems (including one of mine).

Brass is something different, of which most of the features, unfortunately for the author, are already contained in Vista and Google Desktop. The program has not been updated in a long time, and the optional gesture support is incidental.

Sensiva looks promising, though expensive. Unfortunately, they still haven't released a Vista version. I emailed them months ago inquiring about that, and never received a response.

Mojo Sidekick doesn't seem to be such a serious product, but it certainly is cute. Definitely not as robust as StrokeIt or Sensiva - but it's free, so it doesn't cost anything to try it. I couldn't find anything about Vista compatibility, so my guess is that's it's probably not.

Thanks for the useful info...

Looks like it's folded!

thanks for the info, anyone else with experiences to share?

please link for this Sensiva (can't locate it in google)

Hello

There no more Sensiva ... :-(
No more web site on the web. The main page is down for few weeks.

I using Sensiva for 8 years with Autocad and I just say it is amazing !!!
Sensiva with a pen tablet is far better, faster and handy than a simple mouse.
But unfortunately sensiva doesn't work with VISTA and I don't know how I will do later ...

I can say too that the free(first) release of sensiva is better than the sold releases ... humm ... let it be LOL
With the free one you can use two knobs instead one to draw a gesture with pen mode
for exemple right click + left clik.

It allow you to work faster without mistakes with fast gestures ;-)

Later
Teuf

I can send a copy of this old free release to someone ask me ;-)

Teuf

Finally I find it on the web, but this one is in french (I'm French)
You can dowload this free release of sensiva fr252s ,here :

http://www.devparadise.com/download/tools/pc/f266.php

Best regards
Teuf

just an update. currently the only 2 english alternatives to strokeit are just between...

Brass via Mime plugin
Mojo Sidekick

anyone with good experiences or know how they compare to strokeit?

Before I install Sensiva (googled it and found some websites still had the free version), some questions to those who've tried it already and might have used it on tablet PC (in tablet mode): does it allow you to customise mouse gestures as alternatives for the "Ctrl+C" (copy), etc. word processor shortcuts? Are the mouse gestures performed outside the Tablet Input Panel - otherwise they may be interpreted as text input by the TIP, right?
Thanks.

Also, look into DA at nagarsoft.com, if you are looking for easier text entry options. Unfortunately, I don't think its optimised for using on Tablet PCs.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2008 04:18PM by reg2k.

Teuf Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can send a copy of this old free release to
> someone ask me ;-)
>
> Teuf

Teuf, what is the version of Sensiva you can share with us? Will it work with XP Tablet edition 2005? Please PM me through these forums, if you can.
Thanks in advance.

Hello,

Finally I founded the link to download the free version of sensiva I use with XP2
but it's a french version : sensiva fr252s
http://www.devparadise.com/download/tools/pc/f266.php

I often use it to "copy" and "past" with simples gestures (make with pen on the tablet) and it possible to customise all the gesture you want ;-)
(news customise gesture and new customise commands)

But it doesn't work at all with VISTA... :-(

Teuf

OK I have used in the past sensiva, but I remember that you cannot send any keystrokes, like: Control+TAB to change a tab in firefox, there are only 10 basic commands:

cut-copy-paste-open-delete-back-forward-minimize-maximize-open-close-print-save etc



Also you cannot create commands application specific, like the down arrow to execute different actions in different applications.

Are these now fixed?

I never used keystrokes, so I dont know.

But, even with the old releases, you can create specific action for differents applications.
For instence :
With autocad, "0" seems "rotate"
With word, "0 seems" "open a document"

Teuf ;-)

I do not understand why Sensiva have stopped their project.
It was good product. If anyone wants to get latest version, check this
http://rapidshare.com/files/94454526/sensiva.rar.html
key included )

I'm now using gMote (http://www.handform.net/gmote.php).

It works well under Windows Vista SP1.

Regards


Gee

I tried Gmote and its not as funcitional as StrokeIt

I can't get it to work at all. I've defined some gestures and the program itself recognizes them, but outside the test area they are never seen as gestures.

It's an interesting interface in some ways, but it has no predefined gestures and does not allow per-application definitions...

Gmote is like noob version of stroke it.. for noobs.. perhaps the auther should take a look at stroke it, and stop continuning to make what looks to be gay limited version of stroke it, with awful stuff like taskbar popuprs!! aargh shit

stroke it+xp it will have to be... until someone can do something better for gestures on vista

I am the author of gMote... um.... don't know what to say to that last commenter. You only get a taskbar popup message the first time you run it. Unlike StrokeIt gestures can be anything, squiggles, letters, numbers...

If you have any specific feature requests, I'd be happy to look at them. Per-application definitions might be coming soon, I just implemented per-application blocking (so they don't interfere with games etc.).

I just gave gMote a try today and I think it's worth watching. Especially since strokeit doesn't function well in vista.

Here are some options gMote needs before I'd use it:

1. Disable the notifications confirming every gesture. There are moments where I execute literally 3 gestures per second -- and I can see if it was executed correctly immediately. The notification is redundant.

2. Disable the visual line when making gestures. The only gestures I use are directional, which are just split-second "flicks of the wrist". The line is useless for this purpose and even distracting.

3. Disable the system tray icon. Microsoft calls it the "notification area" for a reason. Given #1, gesturing requires no ongoing notifications nor does it require frequent monitoring. With StrokeIt I can disable the icon but still get to the program interface through the start menu.

4. Program specific gestures that override general gestures. For example, my gesture for "close program" (Alt+F4) is overrided by "close tab" (Ctrl+W) in Firefox (if there are no other tabs then it closes the window anyway).

Well the first two are covered in yesterday's update =)

gmote just hasn't got a damn thing to offer that betters Strokeit in features and power.. kinda pathetic really.. perhaps its developer will take a good hard look at what strokeit comes with and can do... winmsg for example.. the easy layout of applications>gestures>commands , the fact it actualy comes with a lot of examples already setup, perhaps the dev shouldsee just how its done properly in strokeit.. don't need no nancy pansy GUI that don't actually offer much, could do with redesign imo.... seriously anyone wanting a better mouse gesturing program do it better than strokeit, the bar has been set.

"4. Program specific gestures that override general gestures. For example, my gesture for "close program" (Alt+F4) is overrided by "close tab" (Ctrl+W) in Firefox (if there are no other tabs then it closes the window anyway).
"

couldn't understand why anyone would even build a mouse gesturing program and not thinking about that myself. Point 3 was pretty rubbish though.

anyway so hope StrokeIt gets an update for Win7..can't be arsed with Fista

gMote looks cool!
Nice work Craig!!
Now I can create my own gesture shapes wohoooo!
It lacks some features from strokeit though...

Looking forward to new update :-)

Yes. Nice work. A bit "young" :) but very promising, and since Jeff doesn't seem to do too much to earn money with StrokeIt (what a pity), you're the one who is going to get rich :D because many people are ready to give money just to have this nice little thing on their machine...

I mean, if it had all of StrokeIt's functions, including different action for the same gesture in different applications, the ability to send messages to applications and what is more important (at least for me) the ability to send keystrokes... I'd be glad to donate and switch from StokeIt to gMote.

And as soon as it reaaches the usability of StrokeIt (and has all the functions mentioned above) I will. But not until then since I cannot affor to lose on speed that StrokeIt already guarantees (sadly not in Vista, although I managed to get it work there with some minor restrictions)...

Until then... Well, looking forward to future updates :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2008 04:58AM by panda_df.

My guess is the guy who was going off on the author of gMote has never developed software or has any clue of the difficulties. He needs to chill a bit. If it's so easy then why doesn't he create the perfect fix?

At least the guy making gMote is trying to do something about the problem even if it's obviously still under heavy development. the gesture recognition engine works pretty well, but there are significant other problems. At least it's moving forward with semi-regular updates. You know the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare"? It's applicable here. Great usable software doesn't happen by itself or overnight.

For those interested, I find that gMote 1.20 is the best alternative so far, but has the following problems for me, maybe some are caused by my IntelliMouse drivers. Not sure. These might be fixed in later versions of his software so I'd check back since the development seems active, unlike StrokeIt.

1) Gestures don't time out after a certain length of time, so if I want to use my right button for right-dragging or other things I can't really.

2) The gesture key doesn't always prevent what Windows usually does with that key, so for example, pressing the middle button and making a gesture sometimes brings up the stupid 4-way scroll thing instead of making a gesture and it scrolls wildly instead of doing what I want.

3) There is a noticeable delay after making a gesture before the action is taken. Even if the pop-up in the notification area is turned off (which you can turn off in 1.20). This is annoying to me.

4) The browser forward/back gestures will not activate consistently in Firefox or IE even though it recognizes the gestures correctly if I have the notification popup on. I tried substituting function keys, but it didn't seem to help.

5) It would be nice to use whatever mouse button or key combination I want to activate gestures. Video games have these dialogs where you simply press the key you want to use for an action. Such a dialog would be nice for gMote. "Press the mouse button or key combination you want to use to activate gestures." That kind of thing.

I'm not all that concerned about running complex series of actions since there are already tons of solutions for doing this. For example you could have a gesture trigger a Autohotkey script, or a Ruby script or any of 1,000 other varieties of scripting that already exist and do what they're designed for very well. With Autohotkey, for example, you can have it switch to specific windows, wait for events, prompt for information and do much more intricate things than StrokeIt actions could do, anyway.

So those are my main gripes about gMote for those interested in evaluating because of StrokeIt problems.

@sensiva - I found it! old version of strokeit
http://prxbx.com/paFileDB/index.php?act=view&id=49
its 1.7mb.
Slightly noob friendly. Some ppl find sensiva's UI better than strokeit. AFAIR sensiva was pretty good too. It was okish, it can be used as a strokeit replacement

@craig thanks for gmote. I LOVE mouse gestures and anyone developing more gesture apps rules! Will definitely follow gmote now. :)