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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

#211
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tried that, and while it does select the element, it still doesn't allow me to click on them as you suggested or any other way I could find[1]. (That is, it works in general, but only on links where my extension would be able to pick up the clickability already.) [1] Example: clicking on a currency here [2] or a time window here [3]. [2] https://www.coinbase.com/ [3] https://www.coinbase.com/price/bitcoin

Additionally some sites register click events on parents higher up in the DOM tree and then determine the child/spot under the cursor. That forces you to supply some coordinates yourself.

Yes, on reddit it's been kind of a guessing game to determine whether the clickable element I want to extension-click is the parent or the child that it detects.

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

#212
post #6

For what it's worth, I think there is a lot of space between what you use and what might work for other people. It's not that there is anything wrong with Arch. Rather Ubuntu is probably easier for many people. The general idea here is Linux. Similarly, there are several tiling window managers. A neutral description of the options and links to resources might have broader appeal. Text editors are another place where…

You can find a good middle-ground for example with Manjaro. It has the affordances of Ubuntu, but the power of Arch. I've been using it for a couple of years now, and I'm very happy with it.

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

#213

I want mouseless everything. Unfortunately mouseless browsing isn't easy and mouseless usage of the rest of the apps is next to impossible because of inconsistent hotkeys (except on Mac perhaps).

I have had some luck with vim browser extensions like Tridactyl (Firefox extension), you could give that a shot if you haven't tried it. There are also similar extensions for Safari and Chrome but my best experience with mouseless browsing has been with Firefox+Tridactyl.

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

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just checked the GitHub page for Tridactyl, it seems to have so many features. Do you have any frequently used feature that only Tridactyl provides but not Vimium-FF?

sure. i think the big ones are all kind of related: - a proper commandline, not just "open url / search" field - everything's an excmd. you can compose them and write your own. you can bind them to keys or use them adhoc. - you can define excmds that execute javascript snippets - ~/.config/tridactylrc

(oops, those are supposed to be bullet points. seems it's too late to edit now.)

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

#215
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't touch type I assume? Touch typing is not only about typing faster. It gives you this other ability of "running your control panel" out of the home keys only (four fings on each hand resting on a,s,d,f and j,k,l,;). When you have to lift one of the hands off the home keys and move it to the mouse to do anything, and I mean anything, it's super annoying and frustrating. Those who never learned to touch type a…

"Those who never learned to touch type are not likely to grok the appeal of mouseless work." I think this is the problem. If it can't be explained, it makes me doubt there are objective improvements.

Touch typing is not that hard. You can learn, and then try yourself and see if you like mouseless work.

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

#216

I've been finding zsh to feel extremely bloated lately and killing my workflow. Mainly because I use oh-my-zsh with several additional plugins, and also because I use guake with at least 10 terminal tabs open at any time. Zsh has some strange refresh issue when SIGWINCH is called to switch back to the guake window that results in more cpu usage when switching back in the longer zsh is open for. Has anyone experienced…

Yep, I did. That's why I don't any "Zsh framework" anymore, like oh-my-zsh or prezto. In the book I don't advise to install any framework either.

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

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. My setup is pretty standard, but with the millions I'll do with the book (ahah) I think I'll try an ergonomic keyboard. I put Ergodox in the "stuff I need to check". If you have any other recommendation, please don't hesitate to share :)

Before you get an ergodox, make sure your desk height, chair position, monitor height, etc. are as good as you can make them. I've resorted to using stacks of books when necessary :)

Thanks for the advice! I've a nice standing desk (best investment EVER) and an arm with my monitor, so I think it should be fine :)

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

#218
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…

also, i use i3, tmux, emacs and vscode on daily basis. i changed my unix experience(mostly cli) into something close to a roguelike game - shell scripting + fzf + make + direnv can make cool things together. the less typing the better, and faster.

I would be very interested to see a video of that. I'm always happy to see different setup.

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

#219
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Additionally some sites register click events on parents higher up in the DOM tree and then determine the child/spot under the cursor. That forces you to supply some coordinates yourself.

Yes, on reddit it's been kind of a guessing game to determine whether the clickable element I want to extension-click is the parent or the child that it detects.

I wonder if there's something in Firefox code that could be easily repurposed for your project.

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

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This gets explained a lot; what doesn't get explained as much is how folks can continue to make money for their work in the "libre" world. It's certainly possible - dual licensing, services, premium editions, physical books, etc., and it's not a bad thing. But my guess is that a "libre" version of this guy's book would rapidly turn into a "gratis" version of it too - a "good enough" PDF would get passed around and ul…

I might add that 90% of the situations where I've thought about this in a software context as well have been "libre" -> "gratis" more or less inevitably. Again, there are exceptions, but it's surprising how many people are happy to take something and run with it, no support, no "enhanced edition", no training, etc.

I wouldn't say it's surprising at all.
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