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Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows

mouseless.click

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Re: Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows

#251
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few months ago I switched to a vertical mouse and can’t recommend it enough.

I couldn't adapt to the fact that, when I click, I have to be mindful of not moving the mouse sideways with the right amount of finger pressure.

I quickly got used to mine. It’s not exactly at a 90 degree angle to the desk, the finger pushes about as much down as to the side, and since it’s a natural pinching gesture the thumb on the other side stops any remaining horizontal force. Just find a mouse that has a good design, I’ve seen some I could never use.

Re: Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just hard - impossible. To the point of making it harder to find a job, as very few jobs let you use a non-Windows ThinkPad. (I mean yeah, of course AuDHD makes it harder to find a job, no surprise there. But it's a shame that laptop manufacturers make it even harder.)

> To the point of making it harder to find a job Fwiw... (1) Lenovo sells compact keyboards with trackpoint. USB and bluetooth. There are mouse buttons below Space, but it cuts off there, with no pad. I once taped a kludgy bare usb pad to one, which was ok, but the extra couple of cm separation was annoying. I considered grinding out some of the case, but don't recall if that turned out plausible. (2) Lenovo has tabl…

I'm somewhat aware of some of this but also... External keyboard only works if you're using the laptop as a desktop computer. It's not really practical if one uses a laptop as a laptop.

And yeah I know there are people lugging a massive mechanical keyboard to cafes but I find that about as annoying as getting used to the ridiculously bad keyboard and no trackpoint of Apple laptops.

Re: Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows

#253
post #72

I prefer ShortCat's model: https://shortcat.app/ Similar to Vimium, but for the whole OS. Apparently Homerow is similar, judging from comments I'm seeing here. I really wish I knew an equivalent for Linux. I might even leave Gnome behind if a different DE has a good model for this.

You could try Hints for Linux https://github.com/AlfredoSequeida/hints

Thank you! This looks like exactly what I've been looking for!

The name is very reasonable, but effectively ungoogleable.

Re: Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows

#254
post #72

I prefer ShortCat's model: https://shortcat.app/ Similar to Vimium, but for the whole OS. Apparently Homerow is similar, judging from comments I'm seeing here. I really wish I knew an equivalent for Linux. I might even leave Gnome behind if a different DE has a good model for this.

>I really wish I knew an equivalent for Linux I highly encourage you to vibecode something. Its really easy. You can get a small fast library that can do OCR with coordinates, and the rest is just interfacing with the x server to draw stuff over the top.

Thanks for the suggestion.

As one who's driving Claude daily due to corporate mandates, I can see why people fall in love with genAI coding, but my revulsion has only grown as I've learned to do it, so I won't be spending my free time with LLMs.

Re: Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows

#255
post #187
post #72

I prefer ShortCat's model: https://shortcat.app/ Similar to Vimium, but for the whole OS. Apparently Homerow is similar, judging from comments I'm seeing here. I really wish I knew an equivalent for Linux. I might even leave Gnome behind if a different DE has a good model for this.

Have you tried Ratpoison? It's got a bunch of features to manipulate the rat with the keyboard.

I have not.

I've considered keyboard-driven WMs before, but have thus far gotten by using regular WMs with a few custom keybinds for window sizing, movement, and monitor placement.

As long as you have an automated algorithm for the basic layout, it works pretty well.

I still have to contendb with apps that don't offer the shortcuts I want, though, and that's when Shortcat is very handy.

Re: Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows

#256
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vimium extension does that. Works well too. Works on Chrome and Firefox.

try out surfingkeys if vimmium isnt ur cup of tea

I am currently trying something called ShortCat, this is not just for the browser but works in other Mac applications too!

Look Ma, No mouse !

Re: Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows

#257
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thing is, Apple has no standards for keyboard navigation of native UIs to bring back, except if you turn on the accessibility feature I think called “Full Keyboard Access” which is supposed to let you tab to any control instead of only text fields. The Mac once had zero ability to navigate a dialog without a mouse, other than Enter/Return to do the default button, and Cmd-period (later ESC once it appeared) for cance…

> Thing is, Apple has no standards for keyboard navigation of native UIs to bring back Huh? All menus and dialogs on Mac are navigable by keyboard. I don't recall a time when they weren't. Unfortunately none of the necessary keyboard shortcuts are actually called out in the UI (we long for the days of Keys! on OS9)

Navigable by keyboard by default? In Windows you hold down Alt and letters start being underlined so you can use the menus. On a Mac, assuming I haven't turned on any a11y features, how do I open and peruse the menus or, just as importantly in the modern era, navigate the random buttons every app has strewn around the top part of windows where the title bar used to be? e.g. in Messages there's a "New chat" button, a "Video Camera" button, and an "(i)" button in that top bar. Some might have direct keyboard shortcuts a user could have memorized like ⌘-N for New, but that's not what I'm asking. I'm asking how you navigate the UI widgets themselves.

Also, dialogs? Open TextEdit. Hit ⌘-O for Open. Hit Tab. For me, default settings, that focuses the Search field. It doesn't visibly move the focus to any other control. After screwing with it for a while, it seems like if you hit Tab two times, nothing appears focused, but then if you use Up/Down arrows at that point, they are now able to select items on the sidebar, then another Tab moves focus to the main file browser, and from there the Search again, and now focus cycles between those three. But there's still no way to access any of the widgets up top. So, it's half-assed and undiscoverable.

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