On Emacs 28’ context menu and Unix mouse-usage in general

A mouse can afford spacial exploration. Moving text from there to here, style thinking. Versus the keyboard of jump to there, copy text, jump back, paste.

Hard to see either as superior for text. Hard to see how to use the symbolic for spatial data. (Images and such)

I have no idea where this notion of "shunning the mouse" came from. The simple fact is that when you're "in the zone", the mouse gets in the way. After having read and re-read other peoples code, and occasionally also having read half a dozen research papers, you are finally ready to dump all the code that has been brewing in your head. At that point, you are a typist. All the for-loops and switch-cases and function calls are jostling around in your head, and you want to serialize them into source code as fast as you can. When you're doing that, forget the mouse even the arrow keys are too far away. All you want is "do what I mean" with "the thing at point". Everything else just disappears outside your region of focus.

So yeah, the mouse is awesome when you're browsing and reading code. But when you're typing code, the home row is the fastest way to get it all out.

EDIT: s/two/too/ far away

When I'm in this state, I'm probably writing pseudo-code fairly close to the real language I'm working in, and not worrying too much about errors I'm not seeing, and just trying to quickly correct the errors I do see, such that I can express my intent on screen. Finding missed typos and other errors is for a second pass and with the help of a compiler/interpreter, for code I write in that manner. It may require some additional passes to tweak things that just don't work, as well, but that's fine. The point was to get what was very clearly in my mind transferred to another medium before something caused a corruption of my mental state.

That's not to say that's the only way I write. I also often devote time to carefully pondering what's on the screen and how to best interact with it to change it in the way I want, or whether there is a better way to do it entirely and that code should be rewritten. But when I'm trying to get what's in my mind onto the screen, little things like auto-indent and being able to accomplish something while keeping my hands doing what they've been doing all add up to help in small ways.

I still look at the keyboard to type. (Glances to ensure focus has not moved... Love emacs' case changing commands for when the caps-lock pressed)

I have thought about learning to touch type - yes, one day.

I have tried clisubg my eyues (that is "closing my eyes") to type....

What is the use, really? I spend so much time thinking about and reflecting on code and so little actually writing it

But after experimenting with home row mods and (split) keyboards with multiple thumb keys, regular keyboard layout usage just feels terribly inefficient.

While fast typing is not a bad thing it is definitely not necessary skill of good coder. But coding and using the terminal requires frequently using special keys and combinations, which on regular keyboard require constantly moving hands to access hard to reach keys.

Using home row mods (with a special keyboard) the hands are almost resting.

When I'm writing prose, the speed I can type is the speed I can write. There are no downsides to being a competent touch typist. It's a bit much to say it makes me a better "coder" but there's no question it makes me better at my job.

For _some_ people, the mouse is easier to use, so increases accessibility for _them_. I think the OP was implying that better mouse accessibility could be added on-top of the existing keyboard support.

But then there's this whole subculture in Unix that basically claims that keyboard should be the only device used for interaction. The software that they make makes it deliberately hard, or outright impossible, to use the mouse. And there's a cult following around this, based solely on the notion that it's somehow better in general.

(A stark example of this approach is https://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/, where it's readily obvious from the name and the logo.)

I was not really paying attention and so did not expect it when I bought my first thinkpad, but it is so nice it has now become a must have for me.

Why? It's not costing anything, action-wise

Eventually I remember to ctrl+c but it just flows so well, select then paste that it feels like a real step backwards going to a system that does not have it.

I do agree that the middle mouse button should be divorced from the scroll wheel.

If you want to go real old school and have a proper middle button, get an HP DY651A optical 3-button USB mouse (no scroll wheel).

middle click is "query for the most recently selected thing and paste" while the clipboard requires an explicit copy action. In vim (even terminal vim) with X support they are the '"' (double quote) and '+' (plus sign) registers respectively. Most other applications let you copy and paste with CUA (or for terminals shift-modified CUA) keybindings.

So for something I plan on pasting longer term (or multiple times) I will typically use the clipboard. For quick "this thing needs to go here" with the mouse I use the primary selection.

I also agree that middle-click is nearly useless on a scrollwheel. Many mice have more than two buttons these days so you can always remap a function button though (as I mention in another thread, my trackball actually has 3 legit full-size top buttons, but prior to that I remapped the "browser forward" button to be middle).

It has a scroll wheel, which if you press down toggles between free-wheeling and line-by-line scrolling. It also has a physical middle mouse button just below the scroll wheel.

The byte code compiler uses gccjit to compile elisp to elf files. That, in conjunction with the use of libjansson for json handling, makes emacs substantially, noticeably faster for lsp (language server protocol, which most editors at least have support for now).

If you haven't looked at lsp yet either, I'd highly recommend it. It provides a common set of language server apis so you can have a unified completion experience between languages. I can remember all the unpleasant tricks to getting jedi mode for python, meghanada for Java, and having to memorize two totally separate apis. This is so much nicer.

It was actually my window manager of choice between 1998 and 2003 when on Linux distributions, and I had my collection of mini widget apps.

Nowadays it seems mostly stable, to put it on a nicer way.

https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/SFNT

At 20 i was consulting and ran across my first system with a mouse. I quickly realized that there was no profit in using it with my right hand since that was needed for numpad and shift selects etc.

So I moved the mouse to the left and never looked back. My hand just goes there when it makes sense -- never breaking my focus or the close-contact my right has with the keyboard. That has made this entire discussion about mouse good/bad a non-issue.

It may take some time to train yourself if you're not a puppy anymore, but its worth stepping out of that argument and into something else.

"for crying out loud", "they even moved the f-keys to the top row so that you can have the mouse on the left of your keyboard!" /<smiles>

(p.s. op .. at 36 i learned to play the conga and that allowed me to go crazy with the ambidexterity like nothing else, ever. just buy a set and give it a go!)

As for the right, as some other commenters have noted it really isn't that bad to use your non-dominant hand with a mouse. Most of the movement precision comes from the wrist and elbow, rather than finer finger control.

As you seem to have missed it, the author isn't positioning himself as a dogmatist using the mouse. He is calling Unix users who don't use the mouse dogmatists.

Eh - it's well known in my company where some jobs are mouse heavy and some are more keyboard heavy. Both camps get ergonomic pains, but it is more common with the mouse heavy folks.

Typing can affect hands, wrists and forearms. Mousing affects neck/shoulder/side more.

People who get it with typing tend to get it after extended use (years). People doing mouse heavy CAD work often get it quickly (1-2 years) unless they're aggressively trying to mitigate it.

Contrary to what I just said, I do think they are equally prone assuming equal usage. The reality is that a lot of programming jobs do not require a lot of continuous keyboard usage - you spend a fair amount of time thinking. It's why I get more ergonomic issues when typing emails or writing documentation than when programming.

Mouse heavy jobs, OTOH, often involve continual mouse use. So they automatically are more at risk.

Well, actually...

Not as of macOS 11 it isn't. Installing the latest version from Homebrew also presents a terminal interface - hence my questions re the available GUIs.

Similar to mpv, they make a distinction between Formulas and Casks.

Granted, for any input modality, there are better and worse designs using it, but when designed properly, having an additional modality available can never be a disadvantage. When a newer modality replaces, rather than supplements, an older one, the benefits are often more debatable.

I'd still love to see a Linux/SBCL Lisp Machine. I wonder to what extent such a thing is possible.

On another tangent, I'd love to see an Elisp compatibility package for Common Lisp, which would essentially be GNU Emacs with the C bits replaced with Common Lisp.