Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

themouseless.dev

11–20 of 221 posts

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#12
Definitely going to check this out! I got fascinated with mouseless interaction several years ago, even to the point that I registered tyrannyofthemouse.com:

http://blog.tyrannyofthemouse.com/2012/02/ending-tyranny-of-...

Unfortunately, I've had to give up on it for web browsing. Too many sites break the ability of my extensions to pick up clickable elements. I can probably find a long-term workaround, but I'll have to get up to speed on low-level details of what's going on.

Working strictly from the keyboard -- if and when it's possible -- is one way that I can really get "in the zone" and very productive.

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#15
Suggestion: show a sample from your book that is relevant to the purpose of the book. What is currently available as a sample is mostly front matter, Linux fundamentals, and Arch info.

(And also, was it not possible to generalize the information so readers don't have to switch to Arch to follow along?)

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#16

I never got the hate of mouse in the dev community. Isn’t most of work browsing code and Googling things? Making a mouse a way to navigate way more efficient than a keyboard? It seems retrograde.

For those of us who can type very quickly, every movement of the hand away from the keyboard (to the mouse) and back has a high cost in terms of lost typing opportunity.

If speed and subconscious operation are the goal, then it's best to stick to as much keyboard only as possible, or alternately to learn to maximize the one hand keyboard + mouse approach (which can actually be very fast once you know your tools).

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#17

I never got the hate of mouse in the dev community. Isn’t most of work browsing code and Googling things? Making a mouse a way to navigate way more efficient than a keyboard? It seems retrograde.

Generally shortcuts are far more efficient - navigating via vim movements are incredibly fast for proficient users.

Same holds true if you use excel, shortcut gurus generally far faster to accomplish the same thing.

Back when I used to play World of Warcraft, you could tell the clickers snd how bad they were comparatively against dudes who had hundreds of bindings.

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#18

I never got the hate of mouse in the dev community. Isn’t most of work browsing code and Googling things? Making a mouse a way to navigate way more efficient than a keyboard? It seems retrograde.

Once upon a time, I was a Vim user. I learned many of the commands, such that a typical day involved swatting at the keyboard like it's a drum set. But I later realized that half of the satisfaction I felt I got out of Vim was just the feeling that I could, more than that it was actually that fast. Sure, some things like macros can be much faster in a given situation, but the amount of savings you get from typing Shift-V % instead of picking up the mouse and dragging over a paragraph is not really that high compared to the amount of time you spend writing and thinking about code.

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#19

I never got the hate of mouse in the dev community. Isn’t most of work browsing code and Googling things? Making a mouse a way to navigate way more efficient than a keyboard? It seems retrograde.

> Isn’t most of work browsing code and Googling things?

Browsing code is mostly done in an editor with the keyboard, for me. And Googling things isn't exactly something I spend hours a day doing.

Additionally, I make more mistakes clicking slightly outside what I'm trying to click on than I do using keyboard shortcuts which work without precise fine motor control.

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#20

I never got the hate of mouse in the dev community. Isn’t most of work browsing code and Googling things? Making a mouse a way to navigate way more efficient than a keyboard? It seems retrograde.

Once upon a time, I was a Vim user. I learned many of the commands, such that a typical day involved swatting at the keyboard like it's a drum set. But I later realized that half of the satisfaction I felt I got out of Vim was just the feeling that I could, more than that it was actually that fast. Sure, some things like macros can be much faster in a given situation, but the amount of savings you get from typing Shi…

The difference for me was realizing that Shift-V % will typically highlight precisely what I want - though that's a bad example, visual mode is rare for me. More frequently it's something like `dap`, which works with a level of precision across lines that aren't necessarily all on screen. If I click and drag, I'm liable to select one extra or one less line, e.g.
Post reply on HN