'I Stopped Using a Computer Mouse For a Week and It Was Amazing' (vice.com) 308
Slashdot reader dmoberhaus writes via Motherboard: Over the course of the next five days, I relied solely on my keyboard to navigate the web and my local hard drive. It was a limited form of digital detox, a way of trying to understand the way people used computers before the computer mouse became widely adopted for commercial machines in the 1980s. If I had to describe the experience of computing without a mouse in a word, I'd say it was fucking fantastic. It took about a day and a half before I had memorized all the shortcuts that I would be using on a regular basis. All the other important shortcuts I wrote down on a notepad I kept on my desk for reference. I also had to do a little set up for certain applications, such as Gmail, which doesn't have many of its most useful shortcuts turned on by default, such as the ability to select all unread messages or the ability to move between messages with only a single keystroke.
By the end of my week without a mouse, many of the shortcuts were already beginning to feel like second nature. I found that they saved me a ton of time, especially on tedious tasks like deleting emails. Indeed, one shortcut evangelist suggests that switching to keyboard shortcuts in Gmail saved him as much as 60 hours per year. If nothing else, it made the experience of using a laptop way less miserable because I didn't have to touch the touchpad. [...] Admittedly, not everything was rosy without a mouse. I haunt a number of forums and found it a little tedious to have to ctrl+f whatever item I wanted to "click" on. Similarly, doing anything that involved image editing in Photoshop was basically impossible. I don't game on my PC, but from what I hear, this would also be quite difficult without a mouse.
By the end of my week without a mouse, many of the shortcuts were already beginning to feel like second nature. I found that they saved me a ton of time, especially on tedious tasks like deleting emails. Indeed, one shortcut evangelist suggests that switching to keyboard shortcuts in Gmail saved him as much as 60 hours per year. If nothing else, it made the experience of using a laptop way less miserable because I didn't have to touch the touchpad. [...] Admittedly, not everything was rosy without a mouse. I haunt a number of forums and found it a little tedious to have to ctrl+f whatever item I wanted to "click" on. Similarly, doing anything that involved image editing in Photoshop was basically impossible. I don't game on my PC, but from what I hear, this would also be quite difficult without a mouse.
No keyboard next (Score:5, Funny)
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Even better! There's this thing called screen.
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Yep, interacting with PC and eating snacks without making your keyboard dirty.
Re: No keyboard next (Score:2)
The mouse is for pointing at things. Not for issuing commands. For UI, its primary role is selecting from a number of arbitrary items. Keyboard is more efficient for most anything else.
If you use a Mac, you probably are right; keyboard accessibility on Macs is atrocious.
Re: No keyboard next (Score:2)
Windows or GTK, primarily. You get basic navigation with that feature on Mac (as opposed to practically none), but there are still plenty of places where you can't swith context between one part of an app and another. I know this because I have had issues connecting my Bluetooth mouse to my Mac Mini and there are various things that force me to plug in a USB mouse to get the Mini setup. I've almost never experienced a UI on Windows or GTK I couldn't get around with a keyboard. But it happens with core Mac s
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> If you use a Mac, you probably are right; keyboard accessibility on Macs is atrocious.
Interesting. Once I turned on Full Keyboard Access, I found the Mac to be fairly usable by keyboard.
Just out of curiosity, what are you comparing it to when you say it's "atrocious"?
I've been using a Mac for over two years and was annoyed that there are controls you can't tab to. Now I find out that is turned off by default.
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A really good editor (e.g. emacs) makes it reasonably easy to move blocks of texts around without mousing-- I'd argue it takes slightly more effort to navigate to the begin and end points of the region of interest, but you're less likely to make mistakes on the boundaries, so it's pretty much a wash.
But then, emacs has mouse-oriented ways of doing these things too-- few of us are arguing those shouldn't exist, the point is (1) as an exercise, it may be useful to force yourself to avoid the mouse for a time
So... (Score:5, Funny)
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True enough, I often use a mouse in emacs.
The real problem with no mouse is navigating between a dozen xterms! It is just so much faster to lay them out in a grid and use focus-follows-pointer than to have to use the keyboard to switch between them. Also, then the mouse controls which data input area the cursor is in, and the keyboard inputs the commands. Simple, clean, minimum context switches.
It is the mouse (and virtual desktops) that makes the modern CLI so efficient!
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Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
Vim.
No sane person should ever use vi.
Now Vim, on the other hand...
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Re: So... (Score:2)
Efficiency (Score:3, Insightful)
The mouse is more intuitive for the person who is unskilled at the software they are using. The keyboard is more efficient for everyone else, sometimes substantially so. It's astonishing how much software intended for repetitive data entry is not designed better around the keyboard.
Why are people so bad at learning to use a product they spend so much money acquiring? Would you buy a car and then signal turns manually because you couldn't be bothered to learn to use the lever that operates the turn signals?
Re:Efficiency (Score:5, Insightful)
The mouse is more intuitive for the person who is unskilled at the software they are using. The keyboard is more efficient for everyone else, sometimes substantially so. It's astonishing how much software intended for repetitive data entry is not designed better around the keyboard.
Wrong. Some things are infinitely better with a mouse (the author of the article even says so). Some things are infinitely better with keyboard shortcuts. I'd venture to say that most things are BEST with a healthy combination of the two.
The author is like a guy who has used a hammer as his only tool for his whole life. Suddenly he discover a screwdriver and realizes screws go in so much easier and cleaner than with a hammer, and suddenly says "get the fuck out of here, Mr Hammer" and proceeds living life with a screwdriver as his only tool.
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and proceeds living life with a screwdriver as his only tool.
If he's not a carpenter and has to carry it around in his pocket, I'm thinking, good call! A hammer is easy to improvise, but a screwdriver isn't.
Re:Efficiency (Score:5, Interesting)
Writing a book (Score:4, Informative)
If you're writing a book, and are mostly typing into a word processor, switching between typing and mousing to select text and change formatting is what slows you down.
If you're writing a book, you're doing *a lot* of writing, with that much experience you're probably used to not let the keyboard go and use [SHIFT] + maybe [CTRL] + [arrow keys] for selection (maybe word selection), and the various [CTRL] + [B, I, U, etc.]
If you're a professional writer (e.g.: not merely a book but multiple books), you've probably even completely ditched Microsoft's piece of crap, and are using some professional software that dissociate content writing and typesetting and don't even care about formatting anymore, you're just signaling which parts are what (title, chapter, etc .) and letting the typesetting system do everything else for you.
(e.g.: If you happen to be a scientific writer, those tools are probably some derivative of LaTeX. Though some students are having fun using markdown instead).
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There are also many things that are only better one way or the other because that's how the interface was designed and the user was trained. Given an interface designed the other way and appropriate training for the user, they could be better off with a different input method.
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Some CAD designers get more work done with a programmatic system like openscad, so it isn't universal.
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Re:Efficiency (Score:5, Insightful)
> The mouse is more intuitive for the person who is unskilled at the software they are using.
Bullshit.
You are ignoring Context.
Try playing a RTS (Real Time Strategy) or FPS (First Person Shooter) games without a mouse on a desktop computer. In an RTS using the keyboard to move your troops is slow and inefficient compared to a mouse. Likewise in an FPS while you can move your character with WASD aiming with the keyboard is LESS PRECISE. Turning an arbitrary numbers of degrees with a mouse is trivial.
A mouse allows for non-linear spatial manipulation such as aiming or panning.
Text editing is usually more of a linear process so a keyboard is usually far faster in that _context._
> It's astonishing how much software intended for repetitive data entry is not designed better around the keyboard.
That's true. Hotkeys and Shortcut keys have been deprecated for years by clueless designers.
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Have you ever played RTS with touch-screen equipped laptop? Mouse is obsolete.
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Touchscreen gaming is complete and utter hell. And even worse than a mouse for a repetitive motion injury.
Not to mention the nasty fingerprints.
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Mouses have their uses, but are WAY overused. (Score:2, Insightful)
I grew up using computers before they had mouses.
I do think they serve a valuable purpose, chiefly for "random access" style selection and movement, such as in a modelling program, paint program, or other such things where a keyboard isn't the right tool for the job.
However, they are WAY overused by most people. I am always seeing people take actions in a program that are objectively much slower than can be done with a keyboard. Sometimes I feel like they approach 1/10th the speed they could. It's surpri
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Indeed, for things like file management a keyboard is much faster once you get used to tab completion - especially if you have directories with large numbers of files or multiple sub directories in a hierarchy.
Full circle (Score:3)
I vividly remember remember buying a Commodore 1351 mouse for my Commodore 64 in the late 1980s for use with GEOS. In high school, having this device that allowed my humble cobbled-together 64 to have a GUI with a mouse was so exciting I slept with the box next to my bed.
Yes I was that pathetic in high school.
(Still am. Pathetic, not in high school)
Skills vs nerd image (Score:3)
so exciting I slept with the box next to my bed.
Yes I was that pathetic in high school.
On the other hand, these sessions of "cobbling-together" computers have probably given you some problem solving and computing skills enabling you to have access to interesting hi-paying jobs, and the corresponding hi income is enabling you to have a much less pathetic life *NOW* than any of the guys you considered less pathetic back then.
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Every day for the past year and a half.
not so much (Score:5, Informative)
>"If I had to describe the experience of computing without a mouse in a word, I'd say it was fucking fantastic."
Well, it is not so fantastic for lots of things. I have used just about every interface- touchscreens, lightpens, digitizer tablets, voice, eye control, alternative keyboards, touchpads, joysticks, trackballs, VR, you name it (and yes, using computers before there were such things a mice). I find a combination of mouse AND keyboard for navigating and control to be the best, over just about any other combination, for the majority of uses. Only one or the only the other, not so much.
In any case, if you like keyboard use, you should try installing Claws as your Email client- it is extremely keyboard friendly (because it is designed that way) and yet works great with a mouse, too. It is nice that there are programs that let you work they way you want to work. https://www.claws-mail.org/ [claws-mail.org]
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How good the no-mouse experience is depends on the keyboard you have too. Many laptops have really bad keyboads so using a mouse/trackpad is often preferable.
Also there are some things that the keyboard can't do. For example with scrolling you only have the cursor keys or the page up/down keys. With a mouse wheel you have more control over speed, and with a touchpad you have even more than that.
Also CAD is hell without a mouse.
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>"Does it still look like complete garbage though?"
By looks do you mean the icons are pretty or something? Or that it is cluttered with lots of controls? I don't know, looks fine to me. I am more interested in how it works than looks. And it works really well. The "looks" haven't changed at all in many years. And I think that is a good thing, especially because I detest the way applications have moved to "hiding" everything and using "stylish" icons that are impossible to know what they mean. :) I
Tasks (Score:5, Insightful)
Depends on your tasks. If you limit yourself to simple tasks, they can be accomplished simply.
Some tools require pointing devices. This is a hard requirement, not a superficial one. For instance, I do a significant amount of multimedia work. This would be impossible without a pointing device of some kind. Also, dealing with certain types of multi-tasking between multiple virtual environments would become an absolute pain in the ass.
Also, requiring having a cheat sheet on your desk just to list keyboard shortcuts? This goes to show just how insanely unintuitive they are to begin with. Yeah, programs started with keyboards and some shortcuts are actual shortcuts... But to the person that said they saved 60 hours a week in Gmail, I ask them this plain and simple: WHAT THEY FUCK ARE YOU EVEN DOING THAT TAKES 60 HOURS TO BEGIN WITH!?
A hybrid environment is best. I'm not saying keyboard shortcuts are terrible. I'm just saying they're absolutely terrible from a UX perspective, but used properly are good tools for power users, and power users only.
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It's not impossible, it's just impossible when using software which is designed around the use of a pointing device. Software could be written to use keyboard input for such things, although it may still be slower for certain operations. For example instead of click and drag, you may have to specify exact screen coordinates in a numerical form.
People were manipulating graphics on computers long before the existence of pointing devices.
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Yes, but very little of what most people do most of the time actually falls into that category. Instead of hitting a couple of keys, you need to use a pointing device to find a region on the screen to click on, watching very carefully not to over or undershoot. What could be done in an "open loop" fashion (you watch what you're doing, but mostly just to catch
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It's interesting to consider voice as the pointing device is the future. "Enhance 224 to 176." was visionary to large extent.
Ummm... (Score:2)
The mouse pre-dates the GUI you probably keyboard-navigated and definitely pre-dates the world wide web. So, your 'experience' is not one that would have been shared by anyone in the '80s or the early '90s.
Now if you'd tried to run WordPerfect in DOS on a 486DX2/50 with a green screen and memorised _those_ keyboard shortcuts then, yes, you would have had some '80s experience right there. Or try to load a third-party DOS expanded memory manager. Or just managing DOS memory (gee that was fun).
DOS (Score:3)
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The Return of the Wordstar keys (Score:5, Interesting)
I started on computers before the mouse and back then the popular word processor was Wordstar and it had it's own set of Ctrl- keys for navigation and many functions. Many of the app's of the day and games copied the Wordstar navigation keys and once you learned them you could move around faster than with a mouse. Even when GUI's started appearing many app's the key to working fast was knowing the keyboard commands, it's a lot faster leaving your hands on the keyboard than always having to grab a mouse especially for menu commands. Now all this touch screen stuff and even more time and moving about than even a mouse. Keeping your hands on the keyboard with app's putting keyboard equivalents of menu commands is fast way to work as far as I'm concerned.
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Right - Moving the hands off the keyboard is what kills me. I had a quite acute back pain. It went away during a couple of weeks I worked at my laptop - So, I said, why not? I shopped and bought a desktop keyboard with a trackpad. Mind you, I got a quite bad one (Adesso), but it still helped me tremendously. Many years later, I got a Thinkpad as my main laptop. Loved the keyboard. And, when time came to retire the Adesso, I got a Thinkpad keyboard (with trackpad) for my desktop (I wrote about the experience
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it's a lot faster leaving your hands on the keyboard than always having to grab a mouse
I do some tech support and it drives me crazy to see someone type a typo, say 'helllo', grab the mouse, place the cursor over the last 'l', click, move the hand back to press the Backspace key, then grab the mouse again to place the cursor after the 'o' and click... I see plenty of people do that.
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i even used a DTP program way back on a computer that had no mouse.
i'd probably go nuts now if had to do all that stuff again, but back then i didn't miss a mouse at all.
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This could be more interesting... (Score:3)
Depends (Score:3)
I think this experiment is pretty silly overall, I mean, we invented the mouse because it makes it easier to use a computer.
However,
I don't game on my PC, but from what I hear, this would also be quite difficult without a mouse.
That depends on the game. Some games are much better with a Xbox controller connected to your PC.
That said, word processing without a mouse is substantially more fluid, when you use an editor you know how to operate. The mouse is disruptive to the workflow of writing anything really, be it text like a post, or longer writing, programming, etc. If there's a lot of keyboarding in the activity, any action that requires using the mouse is disruptive IMHO.
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--My mind was blown when I realized that a mouse is basically an extension of your hand on a computer screen.
--Let's be real tho, mice only became really useful/necessary when we switched away from ball mice to laser/optical.
/ Wordstar user - and still uses 'jstar' as my default editor in Linux
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I used to like Wordstar a lot, beck before I switched over to emacs. Wordstar is a pretty excellent example of how to design software with a keyboard interface that accommodates both casual users and experts really well.
Whenever I get into conversations about UI design, I find myself have to explain things like Wordstar-- Wordperfect was another interesting one, though I never developed much facility with it.
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Very much your HO. I find that not to be the case. I find it nightmarish just to imagine writing my stories with only a keyboard.
Really? (Score:2)
Real men don't use mouses ! (Score:2)
This here must be a new generation of Slashdotters. RIP to those mouse haters.
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The very reason for GUIs (Score:5, Insightful)
Congratulations, you've discovered the very reason that GUIs exist in the first place: not everyone is capable of memorizing all those necessary keyboard shortcuts. Memorizing things is my kryptonite. I struggled in those days, and I still struggle in instances where a UI designer fails at his job. Don't you DARE try to rewind the clock for the rest of us... I will discover your kryptonite and leave it under your pillow!
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Memorizing things is my kryptonite.
It just requires practice. Keep repeating something until you remember. Take breaks. Repeat. Spread it over the course of days, and periodically recall things. It helps if you associate memories with somethining and repeat those associations as well.
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Practice doesn't help when the issue is - was - developmental. I did get a high fluid IQ as compensation, but it can't always compensate. That's like telling someone with chronic dysthymia or autistic traits to just suck it up and practice being happy or sociable. There are things that simple force of will can't overcome. You've been reading too many so-called self-help books.
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The "high fluid IQ" thing sounds like an excuse that YOU read out of a self-help book to justify not spending effort after failing a few attempts. Same as all those excuses I heard from ki
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How do you feel about the TouchBar on the more recent Apple MacBook Pros?
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I have no feeling about it.
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Fortunately, you can have both. You can use the GUI to navigate in unfamiliar software, while using hotkeys to speed up frequent tasks. And curse the programmer/designer who tries to force everyone to use only one or the other. IMHO the biggest UI design fail in the last decade is
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I'm not a rodent purist; I use what hotkeys I can remember. I took issue with TFA's moronic implication that you can/should only have keyboards and that mice are evil. I have long wanted one of the rare and expensive keyboards with programmable LCD keycaps; that might finally let me exploit the keyboard more when hotkeys could be made self-documenting (and perhaps even contextual).
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Saw that, but the relationship was already known. In my case it's developmental, and also the reason I developed exceptional fluid IQ: as compensation, in the same way that other senses are heightened when one is lost.
Mouse overuse (Score:5, Interesting)
First off, the mouse (and touchpad) is overused. As you've discovered, you can interact much more efficiently with a keyboard. The worst possible interaction is having to continuously switch back and forth between input methods. There's a reason for that and I'll explain. I've written on this before (and I've never seen much discussion about it), but I'll go ahead and expound on it.
The mouse is a virtual representation INSIDE the computing environment. You control a virtual construct (the pointer) on the display using a device in our world. Because the representation is virtual, you have to synchronize your brain with the pointer every time you begin using it. That includes when you switch from the keyboard to the mouse. That's because it is a visual representation - you must see the pointer and watch it to control it. This is something subconscious, but each person has developed a "synchronization" pattern or habit for mouse use. It's a natural thing that has to occur to try and improve the inherit inefficiency. Most people will move the mouse pointer in some way to try to locate it visually - spotting a moving object is much more efficient than a static object (plus many programs hide mouse pointer when the user starts typing, and only show it again when it is moved). This synchronization has to happen before you can position the mouse on the widget you want to interact with. I suppose some people use other techniques, like parking the mouse somewhere relative to where they last used it. I notice that I do tend to park the mouse off of the thing I'm typing in automatically. However you will find you move the mouse in some typical way to locate it visually and connect with it.
Because visual processing is one of the most expensive senses that our brain deals with, having to constantly synchronize visually with a mouse pointer is a relatively "expensive" process in terms of the neurons firing to make use of it.
So now the keyboard... the computer keyboard is the exact opposite. It is a physical construct that represents the computer environment in the real world. There is a key labeled "A" that when pressed triggers the letter "A" in the computer environment. Because the keyboard exists in our physical world it is much more natural for us to interact with it - it is "real". We also do a subconscious synchronization every time we go to use the keyboard, however since it is a physical object, we use the sense of touch (and often vision, but peripherally). The great thing is this can occur without having to stare intently at the keyboard. So, if you pay close attention, you will find you do some synchronization pattern every time you go to type. Try it sometime. Take your hands off the keyboard, close your eyes, and go to type something. For me, I feel for the edge of my laptop with the outside edges of my palms (the little finger sides). I also notice I feel for the left side of the spacebar with my left thumb and the left edge of the keyboard with my left little finger. This all happens quickly and without thinking - we just know how our keyboards feel. That is because our brains are wired to interact with spatial objects, and the keyboard is exactly that.
So to sum it up - the mouse is a representation inside the virtual environment of the computer, the keyboard is a physical representation in the real world. We're better interacting with real things because we can apply more of our senses to it and it's something we do naturally.
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The way you've described the mouse synchronization is very interesting and probably true for many workflows but, part of that is the fundamentally broken window manager model of "click to focus". With "click to focus" the thing you are focused on and the mouse are disconnected and so you form habits around that disconnection (like parking the mouse after you've clicked the window). The more traditional UNIX-y model of "focus follows mouse" gives an implicit location of the mouse pointer: It's in the wind
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Millennials react to keyboards! (Score:4, Insightful)
Next on youtube!
Gmail saved him as much as 60 hours per year (Score:2)
i stopped using a GUI for a week (Score:2)
And it was AMAZING! I learned so much!
"In the Beginning Was the Command Line." Neal Stephenson.
It all depends on the keyboard (Score:3)
I get the best tradeoff with Thinkpad-style keyboards (minus the horrible Tx40 series!). You get the mouse nub right there at your fingertips, so you barely have to move your hands to use the mouse. You can get an affordable plastic one for around $70, which is ok. But the real nice ones are the Tex Yoda or the Tex Kodachi. The Yoda II and the Kodachi have fully programmable keys, solid aluminum base, and if you buy the kit, you can choose your own mechanical keyswitches. I've got enough extra keys on my Kodachi that I've programmed a number of common tasks as macros and it's made a huge improvement in my productivity.
I type. Old school. IRIX, Fluxbox, Awesome, FB (Score:3)
So what? (Score:2)
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Incorrect (Score:5, Insightful)
a way of trying to understand the way people used computers before the computer mouse became widely adopted for commercial machines in the 1980s.
Only user interfaces in those days were designed for keyboard based operation, trying to use only a keyboard today will be a significantly worse experience than it was because most modern applications assume the use of a mouse or touchscreen.
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Yes, essentially-- the people doing UI design are grossly lazy about supporting any approach but the latest whizzy trend, and people like myself who favor keyboards are roughly two trends back.
Every now and then I make an effort to put the icewm window manager aside, and try out whatever the cool kids at gnome are pushing these days, but from my point of view it's always horribly broken in some very dumb ways-- like the window control menu still has keyboard alternates on it, but you can't open the menu pa
And we all wore onions on our belts... (Score:2)
Quick to use versus quick to learn (Score:2)
The most efficient interfaces I've ever made were character-based UI's that didn't depend on a mouse. Users grew really productive as I used their feedback to tune it and give them short-cuts for common needs.
However, it did take longer to learn on average than typical GUIs. Keyboard-centric interfaces (KCI) have more potential efficiency, but GUI's are just more intuitive and quicker to learn on average. GUI's trade away max long-term efficiency for a shorter learning curve.
Maybe if the industry settled on
There's an extension for that (Score:2)
I haunt a number of forums and found it a little tedious to have to ctrl+f whatever item I wanted to "click" on.
Firefox has a built-in feature to select links as you type on a page; no need to even press Ctrl+F first. On Chrome I have found the extension Type-ahead-find [google.com] to closely replicate that feature.
Comment removed (Score:3)
Geez as if that was new (Score:2)
everybody should try is (Score:2)
everybody should try it, just for a few days.
you will increase your productivity for many tasks, others are just better done with a mouse.
the things is that everybody just assumes to use the mouse for everything without knowing there are faster ways to do things (by keyb).
" I didn't have to touch the touchpad." (Score:3)
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Trackpoints are crap
No, they are not.
your argument is lame.
Waiting for a factual part of your argument, here...
Trackpads with multitouch let you rotate
What exactly are you rotating? I can't think of a use for that function in my daily existence though you could be in a very different field than I am.
and zoom
That is a trivial function to set up for whatever pointing device you want or need to use.
trackpoints don't scroll either
You are absolutely 100% wrong on that one. I've been able to scroll with trackpoints for over a decade. Map it to the third button and scroll away on either axis.
Trackpoints get in the way while you're typing
I have never once had a trackpoi
Re: What a waste of time (Score:2, Funny)
I stopped using a mouse years ago and it is not yet amazing
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Wow..I find that using keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop works AMAZINGLY well and speeds up my editing.
Used in conjunction with a wacom tablet and pen for actual painting/brush type things.....and keyboard shortcuts allows you to really blow through images doing some nightly complex things.
And if you can set up actions for a lot of common things you do....whew.
Re: What a waste of time (Score:4)
I don't use a MOUSE I use a POINTING DEVICE.
Re: What a waste of time (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:What a waste of time (Score:4, Funny)
"Some people are just bent on making more work for themselves."
Somebody got a keyboard-shortcuts poster for their birthday.
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Some people are just bent on making more work for themselves.
The keyboard shortcuts he is using are the ones I use most of the time anyway. The other actions, the ones that are so clumsy for him in this experiment, are the ones that a mouse makes easy.
So the point, if any, that he can make is that so many people lazily use their mice for interactions that would be faster on a keyboard. This is especially true for common actions that are the same across all applications, such as Ctrl-P, Ctrl-N, Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-C/V/X - even across OSes, using the appropriate modifier key.
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As a longtime Unix/Linux user and MS Dos for PCs before that. I do like the ability to just be keyboard only. Heck I like the idea of all the functions being done with mostly the Alpha Numeric keys without the need for specialized system keys such as Control, Alt, Windows, and Menu keys.
VI actually did a good job of a robust set of options via normal keyboard controls, with the only exception would be the escape key.
I don't think the issue is that the developers have gotten excessively lazy, but most peopl
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iTunes users; last time I tried installing it, you could not complete setup iTunes for Windows without a mouse to click the 'state' drop down.
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That is not how I read the article. It may seem more difficult, but it is just a bit harder to learn. Once you have learned, it turns out to be easier (or at least faster) than using the mouse.
I agree that there are situations where the mouse is probably the right tool. Marking the area for electronic signature of a document, for example. But for most interactions, finding an entry in a menu takes a lot more time than just using the right key command.
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We've made great strides since those days. With our new touch screen interfaces we've succeeded in reducing productivity to near zero, making such measurements obsolete.