Die, Mouse, Die!
In my book, one of the crimes against humanity the Macintosh design team has to answer for is their role in convincing the world that using a mouse is somehow inherently more friendly than using keyboard commands… which has helped lead us to a world full of applications requiring constantly reaching for the mouse because there’s no alternative.
Little surprise, then, that my window manager of choice under Linux has become Ratpoison. This Linux.com article describes it as a command-line interface for the X Window System — it’s entirely keyboard driven. The only Ratpoison interaction with the mouse is a keyboard command to banish the mouse’s cursor to the corner of the screen. (It doesn’t interfere with applications’ interactions with the mouse, of course.)
My feelings on the subject may seem a little extreme, but, well, I had a crippling repetitive stress injury and the mouse is a contributor to RSIs.
There’s a learning curve, but keyboard commands can save time and effort. There are some things a mouse can do better, but a lot of the things they’re used for are not among them.
See also Windows Keyboard Shortcuts, Firefox keyboard shortcuts and Mozilla keyconfig extension, Opera’s keyboard shortcuts (Opera really shines here.)
(For brevity’s sake, I’ve used “mouse” synecdochically for “pointing device” — I use a trackball, myself, which is generally better.)
=v= Your title reminds me of "The Return of Sideshow Bob." You see, "Die, Mouse, Die" is simply German for "The Maus, The." (See? I can restrain myself from quoting Monty Python any time.)
Posted by Jym on September 13 2004 15:29
Mmm.. although I agree with the basic sentiment there is still a lot of use for pointing devices. Just not the ones that most ui's require you to use.
Of course, if you are working in all text a pointing device becomes of significant less use.
I solved my potential rsi problems a different way with a pretty neat keyboard that has a lot more potential than its web page indicates:
http:://www.fingerworks.com/
Biggest problem is it is umfriendly to touch typist that require tactile feedback...
Posted by Scanner on September 14 2004 10:21
I agree... which is why I said:
I'd been planning to buy another ergo keyboard and pointing device for work; I think I'll try the Touchstream LP -- thanks for the pointer. (I tried it last time I was at your house and found it a pain in the butt, but I'm sure there's a learning curve.)
Posted by Zed on September 14 2004 12:42