> but takes more time than you think, and definitely slows me down.<p>Are you sure? I mean have you done a real test with an independent observer using a stopwatch? Back in the 1980s Apple did run those tests and were able to setup many situations where an experience keyboard user was still faster with a mouse - but they all claimed to be faster with the keyboard. Now to some extent they were gaming the tests (not all situations where realistic), but enough were that we can confidently say that the mouse often is faster even when it feels slower.
> Moving your hand from the keyboard to the mouse and back, is … a large cause of RSI<p>Citation needed.<p>When I had RSI the doctor noted that it was only in my non-mouse left hand. They said the moving of my hand between mouse and keyboard provided a relief for my hand, and recommended I move my non-mouse hand away from the keyboard more often.
Web is the achilles heel for mouseless environment. And with the rise of browser webgpu based UIs, trying to work around the issue with extensions is increasingly futile. Mousekeys can work as a crutch, but I doubt their convenience for anything but last resort use.
The only problem I have with going mouseless is selecting text (for copy/paste) that isn't in a tmux buffer. Copying from a pdf or web browser, you're SOL without a mouse. To my knowledge, there isn't a way to do this unless the specific application has this functionality.<p>You might be able to address this through the WM, which would be a fantastic accesibility feature.
Semi-related rant titled “Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983”: <a href="https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/927593460642615296" rel="nofollow">https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/927593460642615296</a><p>It’s about the way software is designed around having a mouse, even when it doesn’t make sense.
Ignoring the health concerns, which can be addressed with a vertical mouse, I don't think mice are necessarily slow. When navigating interfaces that are optimized for visual search, translating the area that I'm looking at into a series of keys requires more cognitive effort than just clicking it. When visually scanning, my I subconsciously move my cursor to the area that I'm looking at.<p>Whether you want to use a mouse or a keyboard depends on the task you want to perform and its temporal proximity to other tasks. For example, when reading code, you tend to use a mouse wheel and visually scan and select references. A mouse would likely be faster. When typing, however, your hands are already on the keyboard, so VimMotion is faster. Finally, I love hybrid operations such as initiating a screenshot using the keyboard and selecting the region with the mouse.<p>Whether interfaces should be designed for keyboards or mice also depends on factors such as discoverability, frequency of use, and the amount of available operations. Command palettes are amazing, but they are less discoverable and restricted in their layout. Interestingly, Raycast, <i>the</i> discoverable keyboard-centric app, has a mouse-centric settings interface.<p>Of course, most of us already intuitively know this, but it's tempting to drink the keyboard cool-aid. I had a phase where I aggressively prioritized the keyboard and was frustrated by MacOS's lackluster support for it. My biggest annoyance with the mouse was the distance my hands had to travel when switching from the keyboard. Removing the numpad helped with this.
wow, that keyboard looks painful.<p>Really, why would you use a hard wooden wrist rest? what a mess.<p>I had trouble with my palms years ago, and a soft wrist rest was the solution.<p>Your palms don't have high pressure points, the weight is spread out. This means the system of strings and pulleys from your muscles in your arms that control your fingers can function well, and long-term.<p>The skin slides across soft material.<p>Your wrists are warm.<p>and of course they are elevated and positioned well.
> I have a designated key on my keyboard to invoke Shortcat. This let’s me “click” on anything on the screen (or in any menus, visible or not).<p>Oh, that's sweet. Anyone know of a version that would work in a Linux-based system?
It's funny he mentions RSI, using a mechanical keyboard with greater key travel distance is worse for RSI than a flat low travel keyboard. The mouse is also much more efficient than the keyboard for many tasks, including in Vim. Reaching for the mouse doesn't affect the muscles related to RSI. In fact, for RSI, I'd say ditch Vim to avoid having to type constantly, since it's just a text editor, and use an IDE which gives you more powerful and automatic coding abilities.
Hmm, so while he was busy optimizing and learning and tweaking his keyboard setup, others invent game changing programming languages like Go, and then also write text editors that make heavy use of the mouse, and of mouse chording:<p><a href="http://acme.cat-v.org/" rel="nofollow">http://acme.cat-v.org/</a><p>So I’m sceptical whether this approach of spending ages on this really is that productive, cost-benefit-wise. Usually it doesn’t stop there, but this optimization becomes obsessive and conpulsive too often. Especially if they then also feel like they need to advertise for it in blog posts. Just the fact that the author thinks a mouse clutters up his desk seems to me like such a first world problem and a sign of lack of resilliency for real life. And before you know it your entire diet consists of vanilla ice cream, you pee in milk bottles that you collect, and you run strings through your house to erect borders for germ-free zones.<p>Besides it decreases compatibility and flexibility. “Oh, I need to do some Magic SysRQ shortcut. Oh, my keyboard doesn’t have the SysRQ key!” … “Oh, I need to ssh to a box to fix something. Oh, I’m so used to my heavily optimized nvim that I can’t operate the normal vi anymore!” … “Oh, I need to do some image manipulation. Oh, I have to spend 3 days learning and troubleshooting some GIMP keyboard shortcuts!” … “Oh, I need to connect to some completely out of date Java Applet based IPMI tool. Oh, to attach an iso image to it I need an obscure shortcut which I can’t do with my keyboard!”<p>I mean if none of these things ever happen, and one’s computer life is in such a narrow bubble that one can survive an entire year without it, then good for them, but I think for 99% of IT professionals it is either not worth it or impossible, and therefore irrelevant.
Does anyone have experience with both Shortcat (<a href="https://shortcat.app/" rel="nofollow">https://shortcat.app/</a>) and Homerow (<a href="https://www.homerow.app/" rel="nofollow">https://www.homerow.app/</a>) to make a comparison?
I bought a thinkpad keyboard with the red joystick thing when I hurt my shoulder - it was only supposed to be temporary but I find myself rarely using my mouse. I’m not a great fan of the keys (especially compared to Mac keyboard).
Nice UHK. I've had one for years and don't use a mouse anymore either (on my bench-top computers). I have it hooked into a kvm switch controlling a handful of *nix machines. I still use a mouse on my windows gaming PC for reasons.<p>Interestingly enough, I ditched the touchpoint add-on too, as it really wasn't getting any use.<p>I'd really recommend the UHK to people who don't mind the price and want the benefits of custom keyboards without having to build on from scratch. I'm a hardware guy but have all sorts of other things I'd rather do than assemble a keyboard over a weekend. Delivery was hella slow though...
I moved to an external touchpad years ago on macOS and haven't looked back.<p>I can just rest my wrist on my table and move my fingers, it's also (IMO, YMMV) easier to find with my hand without looking.<p>With a mouse, the movement comes all the way from my shoulder and elbow, it's not practical to move it just with your wrist -> neck pain (again, for me, YMMV).<p>I do have a mouse I connect for gaming and 3D work, those are a huge pain for touchpads, mostly because they often require right-clicking + panning, which isn't really something a touchpad can do. A trackball might work, though?
Other options to remove the mouse:<p><a href="https://tex.com.tw/products/shura-diy-type?variant=42845035331739" rel="nofollow">https://tex.com.tw/products/shura-diy-type?variant=428450353...</a><p><a href="https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/blob/master/docs/feature_mouse_keys.md">https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/blob/master/docs/feature...</a>
I've used keynav successfully on Linux to emulate a mouse via my keyboard when my mouse broke.<p>Quite nice, especially with the right configuration (the default is a bit lacking for my taste).<p>However, I wouldn't want to eliminate the mouse completely, even though I do much of my work in a terminal like in the article.
I have been using keynav (<a href="https://github.com/jordansissel/keynav">https://github.com/jordansissel/keynav</a>) for convenience for a while now, but still pick the mouse up for selecting text outside of the terminal since dragging is bugged.
I've played this game before. It's great if you never change what you're doing. If you get a new project that requires a new IDE or VM solution you spend hours setting things up again. The mouse is more flexible and better suited to getting work done.<p>This seems relevant.
<a href="https://xkcd.com/1205/" rel="nofollow">https://xkcd.com/1205/</a>
I still low key think the GUI is a crutch for less savvy users and inhibits professional use of most interfaces. There is use for analog input, but I often wonder if rotary encoders and sliders might be more intuitive than scroll bars and arrow keys for most uses. That said for some tasks the mouse is quite nice, and it will always have a place on my desk.