When HN users recommended it
1 HN user recommended this between 2009 and 2010, in 2 comments.
20072026
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
1 HN user recommended this between 2009 and 2010, in 2 comments.
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
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...
Keyboard choice is a whole other conversation. :) By all means, get a nice keyboard, but you don't need a new keyboard (or labels) just for Dvorak.
I didn't have a hard time finding a keyboard I liked, but it took me a while to find a mouse - I eventually settled on the "Kensington Expert Mouse" trackball (http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-Expert-Optical-Trackball-64...). There aren't a whole lot of left-handed trackballs, and none I've seen have mouse wheels. This one is ambidextrous, the ring around the ball is also a wheel, and it's got four buttons.