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

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

#121

Post by thanato0s »

shmoogy wrote: post #17
hartator wrote: post #13

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.

That's something which is quite a paradox to me: many people will love using a GUI for coding, and at the same time they will use shortcuts 99% of the time. I don't get that.

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

#122

Post by Insanity »

tuankiet65 wrote: post #114
torben-friis wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm somewhat skeptic regarding pro tools that take a lifetime to master (never got to like emacs for example, and I like MacOS dar more than customizing a Linux distro) but there are some mouseless skills that are such a game changer for me I almost can't use a pc without them, everything else becomes too frustrating. Vimium to browse the web is a Godsend for example. No need to learn for weeks, it's: -j/k for scroll…

I took a look at all of the shortcuts that Vimium offers, and beside the f/F to open the link, other shortcuts are already available natively in Chrome, like: * arrow keys/PgUp/PgDn for scrolling * Ctrl-PgUp/PgDn for switching tabs * Home/End for top/bottom of page * Ctrl-U for source * Ctrl-L for switching to the omnibox * etc I guess some people might wince at the fact that they have to touch the arrow keys or Home…

I use a 60% keyboard, so the arrow keys map to "fn + WASD", which gives me the 'benefit' of not having to move my hand to a dedicated mouse cluster while still being an easy to use key-combination as WASD is natural to gamers.

I mean in the end, who really cares though? Whatever is comfortable to you is probably the best choice.

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

#123

Post by thanato0s »

thinkxl wrote: post #22
hartator wrote: post #13

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.

It's not mouse hate, but an alternative way to use a computer.

Exactly. As I was saying in another comment, I have the impress that some people are very loud and dogmatic about these ideas: "you should NEVER use the mouse or I'll burn you as a witch on the village square!".

But I don't think the majority of the community around CLIs and keyboard-driven workflow are like that. It's just we like it, and we see benefits in this approach.

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

#124

Post by thanato0s »

mr_vile wrote: post #43

Surprised to see no mention of Acme here. As much as I love keyboard-based tools, I must begrudgingly admit that from a scientific standpoint it is much quicker to use a pointing device because there is no recall associated with the action, you intuitively drive the device. However that said, there is appallingly little effort to actually utilise this power. Anyway, this is a roundabout way of saying that I don't thi…

It's intuitive because you're used to it. I thought the same, till I tried different ways.

I think it's just that: exploring new possibilities. I'm happy I tried mouse-driven and keyboard-driven workflow, because I could choose what I like the most.

I didn't know about Acme. Thanks for that!

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

#125

Post by felixhummel »

thanato0s wrote: post #2

"I don't want to try i3 or Vim. What's the point using less of the mouse? Such a waste of time!" That was me, 6 years ago. My colleagues were pushing me to try the tools they were already using for years. They are very good developers, so at the end they convinced me to look at them. I had to admit I was wrong. I fell in love with these tools. From there, I built my system step by step, configured it as I wanted, acc…

Your video was a little too long for my taste. You maybe could create a shorter video showing the full speed of productivity gained by getting rid of the mouse. I imagine some workflow every programmer does all the time:

- read code - check docs - write code - test and look at logs

I use the keyboard for 80% of my work and regularly people (including devs) are in awe of the speed of my movements. I would even go so far and say that it improves Flow (psychology) by reducing mental overhead (muscle memory).

Best wishes! :)

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

#126

Post by thanato0s »

arch-ninja wrote: post #39

Am I a bad person for buying the book immediately after reading the title? I guessed the arch/i3 setup from reading "mouseless", and after watching the youtube video from the comments I dislike the _specific_ environment but enjoy the fundamentals that led to the environment being built because they remind me of my own journey. I don't think I'll ever read this book, but I want other people to read it. Actually scrat…

To me you're not a bad person :D thanks a lot for buying it! Maybe you should have looked a bit at the sample and the video before though, I don't want to deceive anybody.

There is no paperback copy available, because there are many commands and pieces of configuration in there, and I thought it would be easier for everybody to be able to copy and paste.

That said, if there is a demand, I would be happy to look at that.

Last thing: I explain everything in the book, so you don't have to stick with this system at the end, you should be able to build your own depending on your needs. You can swap any tool you want (even the Linux distro if you want), hopefully you should have enough knowledge to do that easily.

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

#127

Post by redcat7 »

enriquto wrote: post #102
redcat7 wrote: post #99

i dont like typing. it is a waste of time and very slow and error prone method at least in my case. i have too big fingers and i make too much spelling errors(not related to fingers). i developed my own style copy/paste/search/replace method. simply i just copy paste tons of code(you cant type so fast) and replace names. removing redundand code is faster then typing new one :) you are not bored typing for the miliont…

upvoted because your experience is so diametrically opposed to mine that I find your message very interesting. One comment, though; when you say > you are not bored typing for the milionth time a for loop? I don't really follow you. Do you ever use a bicycle? You are not bored pushing for the millionth time the left pedal?

You could have already asked me if breathing makes me bored.

when i go ona a bike trip, i dont like wasting time on going through the neighborhood i know. so i take the train and go up to the more interesting part of the trip and have fun. do you know this trick?

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

#128

Post by thanato0s »

blunte wrote: post #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?)

I thought about generalizing the information, but if I do that I'll have other problems:

1. The reader would bump into many more problems because the book is less focused. It's about installing a whole system, so many things can go wrong already, and I wanted to reduce the friction by being precise. To be precise, I needed to know what tools the reader would install.

2. I use these tools because I know they can teach a lot of fundamentals. This means that, when you're done with the book, you should hopefully have enough knowledge to swap anything you want, even the Linux distro.

I think you're on something about the sample. You can look at my blog though, there are many free articles (look at the "mouseless" tag) which are more general and capture maybe better the essence of the book.

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

#129

Post by moosebear847 »

arch-ninja wrote: post #39

Am I a bad person for buying the book immediately after reading the title? I guessed the arch/i3 setup from reading "mouseless", and after watching the youtube video from the comments I dislike the _specific_ environment but enjoy the fundamentals that led to the environment being built because they remind me of my own journey. I don't think I'll ever read this book, but I want other people to read it. Actually scrat…

Yes, you should be in prison since you are a terrible person.

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

#130

Post by thanato0s »

garren wrote: post #89

Just picked up a copy. I’ve been using regolith on Ubuntu for about a year and love it. I like the idea of being able to put together a similar environment, while not needing to get neck deep in figuring out configuration and gory details. Your book basically covers all of that, and checks another box I’ve been interested in (arch). Sweet spot, thanks for the book!

Thanks for picking it! I hope you'll like it. If you have any question, feedback, or problem, don't hesitate to reach out. I'm always happy to help and I'll try to answer as fast as I can. My address email is on the page where I sell the book.
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