Subject: Randomness Caveat Re: Mouse position in button
From: "James P. Gallegos, Jr." <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 11 May 1997 11:37:59 -0400

Mr. Davis:

This is in reference to the "pitfalls in using mouse events" caveats
listed on the "Randomness Recommendations" page (excellent reading,
BTW):

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~daw/netscape-randomness.html

One additional caveat to be aware of:  some mouse drivers come with a
"snap-to" capability (LogiTech and Microsoft Mouse, I believe are the
two I have encountered in the past) that positions the mouse pointer in
the center of the default button for the dialog box.

Since there is not a good way to determine (well, maybe not an easy way)
of someone is using such a driver, this would severely reduce the
entropy available from the relative positioning of the cursor within the
button.

This is particularly true on "stationary" mice, such as trackballs and
touchpads, where the user can click without moving the mouse pointer
after it was "snapped" to position.

[...]