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Comment by floren | Hacker News Reader

I use the acme text editor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acme_(text_editor) for work every day. It makes heavy use of mouse chords, so I need 3 real buttons on the mouse, and it's hard to find a mouse with 3 real buttons and a scrollwheel which doesn't get in the way of the buttons. I've got a Kensington Expert Mouse trackball which works pretty well, but at the end of the day an old Logitech PS/2 mouse plugged into a converter is my go-to.

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Depends by what you mean by "real buttons" but my first thought was that 99% of gaming mice will have at least 3 buttons and a scrollwheel. Often it's closer to 10 buttons.

This one has 20 buttons (including 3 big ones and a scrollwheel): https://www.logitechg.com/en-us/products/gaming-mice/g600-mm...

I was also going to suggest this. I have used a lot mouses and this one is my go-to. It's well built and priced. It definitely has 3 "real" buttons.

> Depends by what you mean by "real buttons" but my first thought was that 99% of gaming mice will have at least 3 buttons and a scrollwheel. Often it's closer to 10 buttons.

> This one has 20 buttons (including 3 big ones and a scrollwheel): https://www.logitechg.com/en-us/products/gaming-mice/g600-mm... I really like this mouse https://natec-zone.com/press/euphonie I really appreciate vertical form factor. It's one the cheap side, but it's good for my hands.

I am very interested to learn about your workflow. What language do you program in? How does acme help programming in this language? Do you have a video or a stream I could watch? I'd love to know!

I write Go code almost exclusively. I don't have a video demonstrating it, but you can read http://jfloren.net/tools.html for more information about how I use acme, and watch https://research.swtch.com/acme to see it in action.

Here's a few key points:

* Select text & middle-click it (or just select with the middle button & release) to execute a program. I just keep a file full of common commands open at all times and fire them off as needed.

* The "acmego" tool automatically formats my Go code & adds imports as needed whenever I save. The "A" tool can find the definition of any function/type/variable I'm looking at and open the source file to an appropriate line. (yes I know these things are available in other editors)

I am not sure I would want to use it but I was totally amazed watching a video. It seems supper efficient when one learns it.

> I need 3 real buttons on the mouse, and it's hard to find a mouse with 3 real buttons and a scrollwheel which doesn't get in the way of the buttons

does a gaming mouse work? I'm currently using a $10 gaming mouse that has 4 buttons and a scroll wheel. Two of them are thumb-buttons that function very well and are not in the way at all.

I also struggled to find a mouse with a decent wheel that you can click without moving it off which is handy in CAD's. Gave up in the end and switched to using thumb button for middle click. But there's an option to get one of 3DConnexion CAD Mouse's if you can swallow the price tag.

Logitech MX Master series has an amazing scroll wheel in almost any way you can think of, including being stable when clicking it.

On the mice I've used recently, the scroll wheel itself was clickable as a middle button. Is that not sufficient for your purposes?

Unfortunately not... after prolonged use, my middle finger gets pretty painful from the mid-clicking. It's less ergonomic than a real button.

Consider a Ploopy trackball. There are 4 easy accessible buttons on the mouse plus another under the scroll wheel, and it's fully programmable.

https://ploopy.co/classic-trackball/

May as well call it Tracky McTrackface. Looks like and awesome project but “Ploopy” is such an odd naming choice. Is it a non-English word or have special meaning in the community?

https://blog.ploopy.co/yall-need-a-new-name-48

I use the middle button lots and the MX master 3 has never given me issues.

The IBM Scrollpoints have 2-axis scroll and a real middle button.

You might like the Logitech Anywhere MX. 5 real buttons and a scroll wheel that toggles between clicky and smooth. Only downside is that it's not bluetooth, it needs a tiny USB dongle.

It has bluetooth support as well! I use the MX master but it's the same system. There's a button on the bottom to switch between up to 3 devices.

I haven't used a mouse where you couldn't press the scroll wheel to get a midle click in a long time.

To be fair, it's usually pretty awkward and feels bad though. It is often very easy to accidentally scroll a bit on the wheel while depressing the third button.

Some of the Logitech mice (MX Anywhere 2) switch the 'clickiness' (rasterization) of the scrollwheel on and off instead of sending a button click.

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/eol/mx-anywhere-2s-mouse.910-...

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