A
pointing device is any
hardware component that allows a user to input spatial data to a
computer as part of a
WIMP interface.
CAD systems[?] and
Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) allow the user to control and provide data to the computer using physical "gestures" - point, click, and drag - typically by moving a hand-held
mouse across the surface of the physical desktop and activating switches on the mouse. Movements of the pointing device are echoed on a graphical representation of a desktop on the screen by movements of the mouse pointer and other visual changes.
While the most common pointing device by far is a mouse, other kinds include trackball, trackpad[?], lightpen[?], various kinds of digitising tablets[?] which use a stylus, and even a special "data glove" that translates the user's movements to computer gestures.
This article (or an earlier version of it) contains material from FOLDOC, used with permission.