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A mouseless tale: trying for a keyboard-driven desktop

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Re: A mouseless tale: trying for a keyboard-driven desktop

#13

Post by nytesky »

I definitely remember using Windows 3.1 near mouseless -- when did Microsoft remove the underscore under menu items? It probably wasn't optimal like some of the modern incarnations, but it was ubiquitous and pretty fast.

In this regard I agree with apple about no touchscreens. Switching tasks/input devices have a cost -- you aren't getting rid of the mouse because touchscreens lack precision, so you now have 3 things to juggle for input.

Re: A mouseless tale: trying for a keyboard-driven desktop

#15

Post by nabogh »

djfergus wrote: post #6

So many good options here. Vimium is the gateway drug to the fantastic qutebrowser (more integration and customisation, scripting, based on qtwebkit/engine).

I just want to say thank you for mentioning qutebrowser. I'd never heard of it before and I'm now hooked.

Re: A mouseless tale: trying for a keyboard-driven desktop

#16

Post by eviks »

nytesky wrote: post #13

I definitely remember using Windows 3.1 near mouseless -- when did Microsoft remove the underscore under menu items? It probably wasn't optimal like some of the modern incarnations, but it was ubiquitous and pretty fast. In this regard I agree with apple about no touchscreens. Switching tasks/input devices have a cost -- you aren't getting rid of the mouse because touchscreens lack precision, so you now have 3 things…

Where is the juggle? You use the most comfortable input method for a specific task

Re: A mouseless tale: trying for a keyboard-driven desktop

#17

Post by RunningDroid »

nextos wrote: post #10
geniium wrote: post #8

I love these papers. I have been on a similar path on macOS. Concerning Vimium, there is the Vimium C version that seems to be a bit faster. On macOS there is a similar software (don’t remember its name) to use a Vimium like feature on your whole desktop.

Vimperator was even better, and allowed a very smooth operation of most Firefox without using the mouse. Sadly, it was killed by the transition to a new plugin API. Vimium and other current options lead to quite some friction, as Firefox disables plugins on many scenarios, such as a new empty page. Hence, you often find yourself in a situation where you have to think whether Vimium is active and you can use Vim-like…

> Vimium and other current options lead to quite some friction, as Firefox disables plugins on many scenarios, such as a new empty page. > > Hence, you often find yourself in a situation where you have to think whether Vimium is active and you can use Vim-like shortcuts, or you need to fallback to the Firefox UI.

Tridactyl works around this by setting a global keybind ( Ctrl - , ) that either pulls focus back to itself or, if it's not allowed on that page, kicks you to a tab it can control

Re: A mouseless tale: trying for a keyboard-driven desktop

#18

Post by ge96 »

I was thinking about this as I needed to get another mouse, my Mx Master 2's scroll wheel is nasty/didn't want to bring it into the office... But I ended up just getting a 3 and bringing that in $100 damn... I'm trying to avoid having multiples of something eg. a laptop barely use.

Re: A mouseless tale: trying for a keyboard-driven desktop

#19

Post by mcswell »

There are cursor movement tools that use the keyboard--most obviously, the arrow keys. And at least in Windows, entire windows can be moved around or re-sized with the cursor. But it's also the case that there are keyboard remapping tools that allow you to re-map control keys (or other keys) to be cursor control keys as well; I've used a program like this written in C since the early days of Windows 3.1. (I had to make changes to it over time, but I'm using it as I type this in Windows 11.) I'm pretty sure there are similar keyboard remapping tools in Linux, and probably on Macs.

Also: there are re-mapping tools, and there are re-mapping tools. The simple ones allow a one-to-one mapping, e.g. Ctrl-M becomes PageDown. The simplest ones do not allow you to map e.g. Ctrl-D to seven Down arrows, nor do they allow moded mapping--e.g. having Ctrl-Q toggle between selecting and non-selecting cursor movement.

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