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Comment by poincaredisk | Hacker News Reader

>I don't get the hype of keyboard == hacker mentality.

This is not about a hype or "looking cool". Mouse and GUIs are faster and more ergonomic for exploratory activities ("how do I do X" for a new task, skimming a document or folder, etc), while keyboard (keyboard shortcuts, command line) is faster for routine, repeatable tasks. Web browsing is full of the latter.

I personally strongly prefer the keyboard and find it exhausting to reach for the mouse all the time, but it's a matter of personal preference. I don't think less of someone when I see they heavily use the mouse when programming, though in my opinion they are missing out.

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Browsing is mainly of exploration (e.g. reading) then data entry (which does require a keyboard but all on one page no scrolling) and much less repeatable tasks.

My hand is usually already on the mouse. Switching apps, scrolling text etc.

I started on PC-DOS and mainframes so was originally all keyboard, but having mouse made things much easier for me.

Now don't get me started on gestures - I can never remember any. - Which might be some of the reason to use mice I can't remember a lot of keyboard shortcuts let me have discoverable menus etc. Pit Smalltalk did not become mainstream.

Thats interesting. Im using GUI Windows OS, but im very heavy keyboard user, utilizing shortcuts and alt+tab for windows switching. I barely even use start or desktop to start most common apps I use. I wrote myself QuickRun tool that is activated by Win+Q, and I type what I want to run. Usually its just 2-3 first letters of alias name, like bash and autocompletion kicks in. Mouse is used mostly to position windows sometimes. Keyboard is just much faster..

Do you use multiple desktops? Windows seems terrible at positioning windows, I can't work out how to tell a window to move to the next desktop, say, or just start on a particular desktop (nevermind start at a particular position). Instead it takes a lot of mouse work just to setup after a boot/reboot.

Do you have a solution?

I'm stuck with native solutions, otherwise I gather this can be fixed with AHK. I'm interested in what you use either way.

I'm currently using this[0] AutoHotkey script library for such purposes.

[0]: https://github.com/FuPeiJiang/VD.ahk

Yeah I am, but im on very old Windows.. Also, I never bother that much about windows positioning. Because most stuff is usually maximized already, hence I often use alt+tab to switch. As for multiple desktops, I use Desktops 2.0 with is great little utility to create 4 virtual desktops. You can switch between them using Win+[1-4] so again, keyboard shortcuts. You cannot move windows between desktops but its not issue for me. I like this feature actually. I treat those desktops like some contexts. Basic, Work, VM.. So, apps cannot escape given desktop.. And apps are nicely segregated this way. Switch is instant.

I've never seen the point of multiple desktops, but I went and found out the answer to the first question anyway. You hold down win+tab, a nice layout appears showing all your windows and all your desktops, and you drag a window to a desktop.

I notice you can also reorder the desktops: right click (while holding win+tab), select "move left". Maybe it will then boot into whichever one's leftmost.

Yes, I already use win+tab, but that is quite a lot of mouse work, what I was hoping for was shortcuts like KDE has 'move app to next desktop', or even better there was some hidden menu or trick to get apps to open on the desktop I want them to live on.

I'm curious what extras you can do with your tool. I use spotlight style search with Microsoft powertoys with good effect. Admitidly stuff like unit conversion doesn't come up often but very helpful for finding files and apps compared to Windows search.

Absolutly no extras. I used to use SlickRun with is much more heavier tool, but I never ever used those extras. And since I started to using Desktops 2.0, I had to write my own tool that was aware of virtual desktops. Everything else I handle from bash (Cygwin).

You can take a look at it here: http://borg.uu3.net/~borg/?quickrun

Be aware tho, it looks ugly in Win10 and onward.

> My hand is usually already on the mouse. Switching apps, scrolling text etc.

When using Linux my hand is almost never on the mouse and I groan when I have to do it. My terminal, browser experience, mp3 player, IRC client, etc, are all usable with only a key board. Even rearranging windows is just a keyboard action.

Even on windows, I can't remember the last time I switched windows with a mouse instead of alt tab. Scrolling text is just pressing j in vimium or even in vanilla chrome just pressing spacebar. If your hand is on the mouse that much you're probably not being optimal

What a wonderful DG/UX like user experience....

I was surprised that Trackpoint-style devices still remain a niche product since it explicitly solves the "I need to move the cursor but don't want to reach for the mouse" problem.

I'm aware of about four models of standalone keyboard with it available, but that's trivial even compared to the bazillion keyboards with touchpads for couch typing.

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