How I (almost) use my computer without a mouse | Hacker News Reader

How I (almost) use my computer without a mouse

victor.hwanger.com

37 pointspsycovic2332 comments

A few more of my tips through the years:

Windows: Alt+space, [n, x, s, m] (n for minimize, x for maximize, s to change size. s, then arrow for which side of the window to drag, then move with arrows. m for move, also with arrows). Ctrl+esc, menu bar. windows key+e = explorer, windows key+r = run dialog. alt+print screen = system preferences. (Haven't used windows in years, so not sure if these shortcuts persisted through Vista and 7. I hear they did)

OS X: First, get Quicksilver. Seriously. Other then command+tab to switch apps which everyone knows, command+` (tilde key) switches windows within apps. I'm surprised how many people don't know that. Also, an awesome shortcut is Command+tabbing to a minimized window, then before releasing command, press down option, then let go of command while holding down option. That restores the minimized window and switches to it, really not bad after you get the hang of it. command+m minimizes. ctrl+f2 (might need to add 'fn' on laptops) puts the selection in the menu so you don't have to use the mouse to select it.

bash: ctrl+r is invaluable. that will do a reverse search through history on whatever you type next. only caveat: once you leave the search mode, you'll actually be in that place in history, hitting up will go back even further. I usually run an empty command (like echo) to get back to the bottom. Hitting meta (esc in my case), then dot inserts the last argument of the previous command. Great for edit,execute cycle. i.e. $ vi script.py $ ./[esc, .] running '^str^strb^' in bash will run the previous command, replacing str with strb. !! is previous command, !!:0 is first token of previous command (usually the binary running), !!:1 is first arg, etc.

Better than win+r for run is just hitting windows which brings up the start menu. With the new start menu, this is similar to Quicksilver and Katapult and all those other things.

If you use zsh (and you really should. It is better than bash in almost every way), you can just ctrl-C to get out of searches.

zsh is rather amazing. Only so if you are familiar with how it is better than bash (besides the fundamental ways) and how to configure it for maximum ownage! Much like complicated editors like Vim, it helps to try to dedicate effort to imprinting a new command in your mind per-week (or so), such that it becomes second nature to use.

Some good stuff: http://grml.org/zsh/zsh-lovers.html

If you get a good zshrc, it Just Works, without much additional effort.

Admittedly, I mostly use those parts of zsh which are similar to most other shells, but which it does better (argument completions, some directory stack, etc).

Namely is a less complicated alternative to Quicksilver on OS X. It only works for applications. http://amarsagoo.info/namely/

Enso is interesting alternative to launchy on Windows. It's no longer in active development. http://humanized.com/enso/launcher/

I really like Enso for Windows. Half of their dev team went to Mozilla to build Ubiquity, which is a similar idea for web services instead of apps: https://ubiquity.mozilla.com/

In bash, just press ctrl+c to get back to the bottom. Also, 'cd -' to get back and forth between your current directory and last directory is great for the edit/execute cycle.

One more for OS X that's relatively unknown is the 'Go To Folder' shortcut in file dialogues. It's accessed via ~ and supports tab-completion — opening something in ~/Documents something becomes: cmd+o, ~, ~/D[tab]<enter>, filename<enter>

Command+Shift+G shows the "Go To Folder" prompt as well, with the added benefit of working in the finder as well as open/save dialogs.

I have 12 virtual screens attached to the function keys and run every application full screen in one of these screens. I never need to cycle through anything but just jump directly to whatever I need.

Thanks a million for mentioning the keyboard shortcut for restoring minimized windows on OS X! I looked everywhere for that!

By far my favorite mouse killer is the Ion window manager (http://modeemi.fi/~tuomov/ion/).

Using the lua config I changed a bunch of the key bindings so that the entire environment behaves like vim. I can easily change windows using the vim directional keys, which are second nature by now. I never lose windows behind other windows.

After a few days in this environment you start looking for apps that provide a keyboard interface to all their functionality so you can throw away your mouse entirely.

Vimperator is a good example. Also, I use irssi (http://irssi.org/) for all chat and instant messaging. We modeled the chat interface for ShopTalk (http://shoptalkapp.com) after irssi for exactly this reason.

The "cool programs" (http://suckless.org/common/cool_programs) page at suckless.org lists quite a few other keyboard-friendly programs.

dwm is also good, as are dmenu, screen and tmux.

Does anyone know of an emacs counterpart to this? (I am an emacs guy.) Thank you.

StumpWM + Conkeror + Screen

EDIT: StumpWM video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKt_rVO960Q

I don't use the mouse except for interacting with flash inside the browser.

For the browser I usually use a mix of firefox's "mouseless browsing" and search with ' key.

The shell is bad for copy/pasting with only the keyboard. Even if ctrl+alt+c/v copies and pastes, selecting without mouse is really troublesome. I run shell inside emacs.

For changing desktops, I have hotkeys ctrl+alt+1/5 for each of my 5 desktops. I usually keep 2 windows maximized at once so I'm always at most 2 (usually just 1) key presses from any window (instead of following an alt+tab app cycle or a alt+ctrl+arrow desktop cycle)

pretty much everything else you need to do can be done inside of emacs.

not if you run your shell under emacs. Running interactive processes in emacs is such a powerful model (python, bash, sql, slime, moz-repl). it makes using any of those processes signifcantly easier

Co-workers use term in Emacs to run sqlplus with libreadline-like functionality (as opposed to none). I'm sure it could add that functionality for other apps too. I just use rlwrap (a readline wrapper app) to add the functionality.

Why would you want to avoid the mouse? You think it is faster? Have you measured that? Human perception of time is unreliable.

Because even my absolute favorite mouse* only has six buttons, while my keyboard has well over a hundred, and the amount of information I can convey by combining them is far greater than what I can express with a few buttons and crude relative spatial positioning.

Because I work with tools where using the keyboard shortcuts until they become reflex is an option, rather than only occasionally using programs and hoping they're "intuitive" enough to use by looking for what I want to do and pointing at it.

Because using language is more expressive than pointing at things all day.

Because you can't refer to something by name with a mouse unless it's already on a menu. (Well, mouse gestures could be considered an attempt to do this, but the set of "letters" is very limited.)

When a task is primarily spatial (typically, graphical editing; I'm not a gamer), I use the mouse. That's about it.

* http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-Expert-Optical-Trackball-64...

I prefer feeling faster than being faster (when they're mutually exclusive, which of course isn't always the case).

OS X: I have lots and lots of email and feeds that come into a combined inbox that I quickly filter into a lot of local folders... and it has always been a pain. Just found this and fell in love with it: http://www.indev.ca/MailActOn.html

All I use it for is moving mail into folders without the mouse (F3, space, per(personal folder gets auto completed), enter, next!)

I've had a lot of fun with AwesomeWM, and ratpoison before that. It really helps with workflow when you're not distracted by Evolution and Pidgin popups every thirty seconds. Sure, there's a bit of configuration before you get started, but isn't there always?

Really wish Gnome would throw in a feature that auto-maximizes windows like the other two managers I mentioned do.

use xmonad or wmii. that force you to use keyboard, I use mouse just for browsing.

You can even cut that out by using Vimperator.

For basic web browsing I find that the mouse model is pretty hard to beat (I use vimperator).

Use the "f" key to jump to links. It's probably just as fast as using the mouse (some would argue it's slower), but as with most things, gets faster the more you use it.

And "F" opens in a new tab.

I've used both. They just don't feel quite the same for aimless web browsing.

Maybe it's because with a trackpoint my fingers don't leave home row, but I find that it isn't that much better (especially on some link-heavy sites)

Really?

How do you deal with rollover menus and seeking with a video player (on youtube and such) without a mouse?

StumpWM + Conkeror for browsing, terminal for everything else.

No mouse required. Try it. Love it.

Yup, same here. Being able to Slime into your WM is occasionally very useful.

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